Extra Ordinary I - Max and Logan
by PreciousJax
Summary: (Reuploaded on 11/15/01. I fixed the review problem. If you couldnt review before becuase you werent signed in, I fixed it now.) (Major AU) *Chapter 20!* Chit chat and genocide of squirrels.
1. Chapter 1

--Jaci's Note: Ok, this is the begining of a big Alt. Reality Trilogy, being the Extra Ordinary series. You all may notice some similiarties between my story and BK's 'Enemies' story. This was not in any way inteneded, and after I realized the closeness in the beginings of the two stories, I emailed him and we worked it out. My story takes a whole different path than his does, so keep reading everyone!   
  
Anyways, here is some background info that you need for this to make sense. It is 2022, Max and the other X5s never escaped and they are still at Manticore. Max and Logan have never met, but this will be M/L pairing eventually. This is going to be my longest story ever, being around fifty chapters with the second two stories being somewhere close to that. Anything that doesnt make sense or isnt explained usually comes out in later chapters. The first chapter is really just expostionary, so bare with me. Hope you enjoy.  
  
Disclaimer: I have like 42 dollars to my name. I so can't afford a lawyer.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Extra Ordinary I  
Chapter One:  
  
Twinkling chandeliers sparkled through the windows of the Costello family mansion, the front yard crowded with expensive cars and chauffeured limos as the best and brightest of Seattle's upper class gathered to celebrate Phillip Costello's sixtieth birthday.  
Phillip Costello was a successful businessman, just now reaching the peak of his power, having taken over Cale industries after twenty years of being vice president and best friend of Thomas Cale. He'd been named CEO shortly after the tragic murder of Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth, six months prior.  
He was an equally notorious with his mistresses, his many affairs common knowledge. In fact, two of his favorite mistresses were in attendance tonight. His wife of twenty-eight years was oblivious to the affairs, whether she purposely chose to be that way was the real mystery.  
Logan Cale thought of his godfather and surrogate uncle with amusement as he jogged up the cobblestone stairs of Phillip's sprawling mansion, knotting the tie of his tailored suit as he went. Though the man he's called Uncle Phil since he could speak the words had his faults, he was still the loveable man who taken a large part of raising him to be the man he'd become.  
But now that he was over an hour late to Uncle Phil's birthday party, well, there was going to be hell to pay.  
Logan took a moment to stand in front of one of the frosted glass panes that surrounded the large oak doors, catching his reflection to make sure he didn't look as tired as he felt. He'd just stepped off a flight from Chicago, having spent less a day their gathering information for the latest cover story of 'The Reality'.  
'The Reality' was a concept magazine Logan had started six years ago; three years after the electro-magnetic pulse had wiped out most of the Midwest's cyber infrastructure, throwing most of America into the second Great Depression.   
Luckily for him, Cale industries had moved everything they had to offshore accounts less than three months before the rest of America fell into chaos.   
Despite his fortune remaining intact, Logan had watched acquaintances; ones that had spent years wearing their money like a medal, drop quickly and quietly out  
of public lives, the money they had been so proud of gone faster than they could say 'look at my new Mercedes.'  
Watching the lower classes struggle for survival while the rich made them selves richer as they took advantage of the downtrodden fight for their lives, Logan became disgusted with the upper classes that he had been apart of for his lives.  
It was then when he approached his family, asking them for there support. Not only in their sudden change of his major at Yale from law, as was the family tradition, to journalism, but also in the money he needed to start the concept magazine he had conceived of shortly after a group of Seattle residents were brutally killed. These innocent men, women, and children had been killed after they had been promised safe transport to Canada for a small fee of ten thousand dollars a head. Three days after the transaction had been complete, sector police had found dumpsters full of mangled bodies.  
These people had been lied to. Logan then made it his own personal mission to expose the truth, the reality.   
Logan pulled open the heavy oak doors, walking straight into the kind of society party he had grown to hate. Logan spotting Phillip holding court in the center of the large ballroom, a string quartette set up in the corner, and the catered buffet on the other side of the room. Phillip spotted Logan and waved him over, momentarily detaching himself to the voluptuous blonde that was wound around his arm.  
"Logan, my boy." Phillip said jovially, "I see you broke yourself away from your little article for a couple of hours to visit your dear old godfather in his last years."  
The first issue of 'The Reality' had been published two years after he'd gotten his degree in journalism from Yale, with a handpicked group of friends from college, fellow journalist, at his side. It was a long and trying battle, bringing the magazine up from an underground newsletter to the nationally acclaimed, award winning news magazine that it was today. 'A little article' it was not.  
"Uncle Phil," Logan said as he approached them with a smile. "I don't know what you're talking about. You're never going to get old. You keep on forgetting about that deal you made with Satan."  
Phillip laughed again. "Of course, of course. Ladies, if you'll excuse me." Phillip said as he unwound himself from the two women at his side. "Well, I am ever so nicely going to forget how late you are. I'll forgive you this time. But I'd like for you to meet someone."  
"Oh God." Logan muttered.  
"What?" Phillip asked as he grabbed Logan's elbow and led him through the throngs of people.  
"You aren't going to try and play matchmaker again are you?" For whatever reason, Phillip felt the need to shove every single woman in his face, paying no attention to the fact that ninety-nine percent of the time they were the most whiny, unintelligent, boring ice queens that Logan was more than ready to kill himself in order to get away from them.  
"What? Just because I want to see you--"  
"Settled down and raising my grandchildren." Logan finished the speech by heart; he heard it at least once a week.  
"Silence." Phillip admonished imperiously. "You'll like her, I promise."  
"If she is stupid as the last person you tried to shove in my face…"Logan trailed off as they approached a group of people. "Miss Sprouse." Phillip said warmly.  
A woman in a dark green dress turned, her elbow length blonde hair swinging as she turned swung around. When she turned around, Logan found himself staring at a beautiful face, olive colored skin, with cool brown eyes behind a pair of small wire framed glasses.  
"Mr. Costello." She greeted, her voice sugary sweet, with a southern voice that reminded Logan of the magnolia trees of Georgia.  
"I'd like to introduce you to my godson, Logan Cale. Logan, this is Veronica Sprouse. She is the daughter of Richard Sprouse, of the Sprouse Shipping Company."  
It was then that Logan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He'd barely met the woman and Phillip was already thinking of corporate mergers. "Nice to meet you." He said somewhat condescendingly.  
"I've heard so much about you, Mr. Cale. Your godfather speaks well of you."  
She said as she offered a small hand to shake Logan's.  
"Well." Phillip said. "Your aunt is gesturing towards me, I'd better go see what she wants." He finished quickly before clapping Logan on the back and walking off.  
Logan turned back to Veronica, smiling wryly. "I'd like to apologize now for whatever my uncle might have said to you, I am sure it was either exaggerated or completely made up in some way, shape or form."  
"Oh, he is darling. Absolutely charming." Veronica said sweetly.  
"He is also conniving. But I am surprised. You don't look like the usual airhead that he tries to make me like. You look like you have some semblance of intelligence."  
Veronica arched a brow. "I guess that is your own bumbling way to compliment me. But the question is, was it supposed to be that way."  
Logan laughed. "Not many people would realize that I was insulting them."  
"Hmm." Veronica made a sound deep in her throat as she took a sip of the wine she held at her side.  
It was than that Logan noticed the groups of people dancing behind them.   
"Listen, it would score some major points with Uncle Phil if I acted like I was letting him control my life. Want to dance?"  
Veronica studied Logan for a moment before setting her wine glass at a nearby table. "Sure."  
Logan took Veronica's arm and led her out onto the dance floor, turning her so that they moved together, picking up the beat of the waltz easily as they began to twirl to the music silently.  
It was several long moments before either one of them spoke. Finally, Veronica broke the silence. "So, I have to say, I enjoyed your last editorial."  
Logan was surprised for a moment. This crowd usually didn't frequent his magazine, especially the women. They were usually more concerned with the latest summer fashions rather than Logan Cale's commentary on the rapidly declining stock market of Taiwan and the effects it could have on America's slowly improving economy. "Thanks." He muttered, for some reason being oddly embarrassed.  
Veronica opened her mouth again, ready to speak, when she trailed off. The tiny microchip in her ear crackled quietly, only loud enough for her enhanced hearing to pick up.  
"Max, it's Zack. Syl couldn't take out the cameras, but as long as you move fast you'll be fine. You are here by officially granted permission to complete mission 945."  
Logan watched as Veronica smiled softly, almost to herself. "If you'd excuse me, I need to go make a phone call."  
Logan relinquished his hold on her, watching as she weaved through the crowd, oddly disappointed. 'Maybe Uncle Phil has some sense after all.' He thought.  
Logan looked over just in time to see one of the insane old women who loved to harass him about why he wasn't married and caring for a brood of children. If these women would ever decided to team up with Phillip, well, it is easy to say it could make his life quite difficult.  
Before the woman could reach him, he slunk off to go hide in the closest room down the hallway, hoping to escape from the boring party for a few minuets, hopefully enough time to make a few much needed phone calls.  
Logan walked into the closet sized room, the room with one wall lined with closed circuit TV's where tape played from the surveillance cameras flashed across the screens.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two  
Max walked slowly down the deserted corridor, the blonde wig that was attached to her head making her scalp itch. While to anyone who might walk down the hall at this particular moment, she would appear to be dreamily walking towards an open bathroom, maybe even appearing to be slightly tipsy the way she was wondering. But in reality, Max was focused dead ahead, mentally running through the exact timing of the complex plan that was about to unfold. She had everything perfectly memorized; from the exact amount of steps it would take her to get from the end of the hallway into the bathroom.  
27…28…29…  
Max spotted the door ahead, exactly where the blue prints had said it would be. She ambled over and walked inside, shutting the door slowly behind her.  
As soon as the door clicked shut, Max flew into a blur of motion. Locking the door with one hand, she pulled off the annoying glasses that she had been wearing all-night and tossed them to the counter with complete disregard. She ripped off the wig, tossing it to the floor, the green dress landing nearby to it a moment later, leaving Max in the black cat suit she had worn underneath with her hair slicked tightly back into a knot at the base of her neck.  
She found the small black bag that one of her brothers; either Zack or Krit had hidden there earlier in the day when the security was less. She reached inside and pulled out the form-fitting leather vest and pulled it on then glanced in the bag, pleased that she found all the appropriate tools that she needed for tonight's basic recon mission.  
It was only then that Max gave herself twenty seconds to stand there, staring into the mirror, the adrenaline rushing through her bloodstream, a sly grin on her face, letting the immense pleasure of doing what she loved best overcome her.  
Then she pulled the straps of the bag over her shoulders and stepped up to the door, blocking out all other thoughts but of the mission at hand.  
  
  
Logan sat in the closet sized room, his feet up on a table, his cell phone at his ear waiting for the call to connect. As he heard the dull ringing as the call went through, he turned his attention back to the wall of television screens in front of him. When the light female voice picked up, Logan spoke.   
"Hey, Kat, sorry its so late."  
"Oh, hello Mr. Cale."  
"Kat, you've been working for me for over five years. When are you going to call me Logan?"  
"When I am good and ready." Katherine Heche, Logan's longtime secretary and equally longtime friend answered back placidly.  
As he looked up at a screen to his left, Logan spotted Veronica walking into a bathroom in the back of the mansion. He had one fleeting thought; wondering how she ended up back there, then went back to his conversation.  
"Listen, I got Blakely to agree to talk to me."  
"Congratulations." Kat replied, her joy carrying easily over the phone line. "I thought you said it was probably a dead end."  
"Well, it took me three and a half days of bugging him to get him to break. Well, that and the promise of safe transport to Canada and five grand."  
Kat chuckled. "So what do you need me to do?"  
"I need you to check out what kind of safe house we can find for him by, say, next Thursday."  
"I'm on it. Anything else?"  
"Yeah, I need you to call up…" Logan trailed off, startled as he stared up at the screen he had been watching a moment ago. Not more than a few moments ago, he'd watched blonde haired Veronica walk into that bathroom. Now, a dark haired mystery woman stuck her head out, glancing both ways, before slinking away down the darkened hallway, clad in the exact outfit any sensible robber would wear.  
"Kat, I'll call you back." Logan said quickly before flipping the phone shut and tossing it to the table. Logan hopped out of his chair and quickly strode to the back of the room and took the second exit into the back of the mansion, finding himself very close to the bathroom that the mystery woman had come out of. 'She, whoever she was, must have hurt Veronica.' He thought as he jogged down the hallway.  
He reached the door, and knocking on it with the side of his fist, he shouted, "Veronica? Are you ok?"  
There was no answer. "Veronica?" He called again. Fearing the worst, having a clear image of her lying in a pool of blood on the floor, or something equally terrifying, he wrenched the door open.  
All he found was Veronica's dress, her glasses, and a blonde wig lying in a crumpled heap on the floor.  
"What the hell is going on?" Logan muttered to himself as he picked up the dress, as if to find some clue of where Veronica was, and why some woman who looked nothing like her had snuck down the hallway a few moments before.   
Turning, he jogged down the hallway, following the path the mystery woman had taken, hoping to catch whoever it was in the act of whatever they might be doing.  
  
Max tiptoed stealthily down the darkened hallway, carefully checking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed. When she reached the opening to a large, empty room, she crouched in the doorway, pulling the bag off her back, and pulling out a small light. She quickly pulled out a small diffuser and screwed it on to the end.   
Setting it quietly on the floor, Max flipped it  
on, casting a light, neon light across the room, exposing an intricate system of lasers that were invisible to the naked eye, but were exposed as the filtered green light flowed over the lasers.  
Max continued to crouch, quickly memorizing the exact location of each individual intersecting laser. Finally she stood, pulling her bag over her shoulder, and taking a several steps back, she ran forward, jumping at the last second and doing a complex series of flips, handsprings, and cartwheels to lad safely and silently on the other side. She immediately turned and ran quietly down the hallway, making a left and into Phillip Costello's office.  
  
Logan watched, completely flabbergasted as he watched the mystery woman flip effortlessly through the complex and state of the art security system that his Phillip had just installed a few months ago. Logan quickly walked over to the keypad and typed in his own personal series of codes to release the alarm.   
He ran down the hallway, quietly as possible, trying to figure out where the brunette woman in black had disappeared. When he saw the door to Phillip's office slightly ajar, knowing perfectly well that Phillip never left the door unlocked, not less open. So he turned down the hallway, slowly inching his towards the door, nudging the door open with his foot.  
Logan was surprised that he found no one in there, no one was at the desk, and everything looked like it was in order. He was just about to turn around and leave when his arm was grabbed and twisted behind his back, and before he could react at all, he found himself thrown painfully face-first into the wall.   
"Why the fuck are you following me." He heard a fierce voice whisper into his ear as his arm was jerked farther backwards making him yelp in pain.   
  
Max had just entered the office when she heard the distant yet unmistakable sound of the alarm-system being disabled. Max had immediately replaced the framed painting to its place in front of the electronic safe and darted behind the door.  
And here she was, holding Logan, the godson of the man she was trying to gather evidence of racketeering, money laundering, and possibly good old-fashioned murder. "Why the fuck are you following me?" I hiss in his ear, twisting his arm farther behind his back, making sure to twist his wrist in a way to enhance the pain he must have been feeling. Max had the distinct feeling that this extremely simple mission that she had been taking simple joy in was swiftly but surely getting shipped UPS straight to hell.   
Before he could speak, Max jerked him away from the wall and threw him into the chair behind Phillip's desk, ripping a large knife out of a small pocket in her vest. As he landed in his chair, she jammed down to stick straight up in the wood of the desk, landing centimeters from Logan's hand. It was then that he looked up and, for the first time since Max had attacked him, they made eye contact.   
  
Logan was shocked to find himself staring into the eyes into the eyes of the woman he had danced with less than a half hour before. "Veronica?" He croaked.   
"Why the fuck are you following me?" Max whispered in an undertone, not losing the violence that coated her words.  
Logan was finally able to form rational thoughts. "Why the fuck are you breaking into my godfather's office? Your not Veronica Sprouse at all are you?"  
"Nice job, brain child." Max muttered as she, keeping her gaze locked steadily on Logan pulled a small microphone out of her bag. She hooked it onto her ear, pressing a small button on the side as she adjusted the microphone to sit next to her mouth.  
"Tinga, its me. We have a bit of a problem." Max spoke, as she monetarily averted her eyes from Logan. He took that moment to reach under the desk and press a small button, a silent alarm that would alert every single security guard on the property.  
"Patch me through to Zane." She continued as she looked back to Logan, who was sitting in front of her looking mystified, but to her surprise, she caught no emotion of fear from him.   
When she heard Zane's voice through the device in her ear, she began to speak, simultaneously pulling her knife from where it was lodged on the surface of the desk. "Zane, its me. I got interrupted in the process, I am aborting." Logan watched as she paused, listening to whoever Zane might be. "Basically this is an alpha verbum zeta--" Max stopped abruptly as she heard the sound of three guns, semi-automatic Berettas, cock outside the door.   
Logan watched in detached horror as at least six large security guards kicked through the door, guns raised.   
Max leapt into the air, rolling sideways as bullets rained out liberally. Logan dropped under the desk covering his head.   
While Logan took cover under the desk, Max jumped forward and disabled the first guard with a flying roundhouse kick, the guards body flying into the wall with a sickening thud. Before the second guard to react, she swiftly hit him in the neck with the side of her hand, karate style, knocking him unconscious.   
Logan was still under the desk when he heard the gunshots stop and the room becoming eerily quiet, Logan uncovered his head and looked up to see Max pulling on a harness and clipping on a thin wire attached to the end of a caillabener, standing amid six incapacitated security guards.  
How in the hell did this tiny woman, no more than twenty-five years old, take out six ex military security guards without seeming to break a sweat?   
Max focused dead ahead, not looking away from the grappling hook she was loading into a CO2 powered air gun. "I suggest," She said in a low voice, "That you not follow me again." Max picked up a high back chair, and with out hesitation, threw it through the picture window on the far side of the room. The shrill screeching of the alarm filtered through the room as Max walked to the edge of the window. Leaning out, she shot the grappling to the roof, tugging on the rope as she attached the rope to the caillabener and stood on the window edge. "Because, if you fuck with me again, you can expect a lot worse than your little cronies got."  
Logan stood, staring amazed as Max jumped gracefully out the window. He sprinted to the broken window to see Max repel down the wall and to the ground effortlessly.   
Out of nowhere a small helicopter cleared the woods behind the Costello Estate, flying steadily. Logan stared as it hovered for a moment, and then flew into motion again, this time a woman clad in black quickly climbing a thin wire hanging from the cargo hold of the helicopter as it flew in a large circle and disappeared over the horizon. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
Logan sat in his office, his back to his desk as he stared distractedly out of the window that looked over the Seattle skyline. Behind him, various papers were scattered across his desk, a small laptop sat humming quietly, and a mug of untouched coffee sat untouched.   
It had been a little over a week since Phillip's birthday party where he'd witnesses the amazing acts of that mystery woman. The mystery woman he couldn't seem to get out of him mind. Right now, he was supposed to be reviewing the distribution reports for the board meeting that afternoon with the shareholders, but instead, he was staring out his window, wondering how the hell a five seven woman beat the crap out of not only him, at six foot three, plus six security guards all at least six inches taller than her and most of which twice her size, and managed to look damn sexy in the process. And then after that, she jumped out of a second story window without a second thought.   
Logan sat pondering this for a few more moments before he heard the door open behind him. "Hey Kat." He said, not even turning to make sure it really was her.   
"Mr. Cale." He heard her soft, kind voice from behind him, and he smiled. Spinning on the wheels of his leather computer chair, he turned to face Kat, who was standing in front of the desk, placing a small pile of papers in the center of the desk. "If you could sign those, I can send them out this afternoon."  
"Sure." Logan said as he slid the papers closer to him and grabbed a pen out of the Lucite holder at the corner of his desk.   
While Logan went through each paper, Kat went around the room and maternally straightened up the piles of folders, gathered the empty coffee mugs that were all over the room, and then stood to wait while Logan signed the memos.   
Kat studied him, the way he insisted on reading each and every word of each and every memo even though they were the ones he wrote yesterday himself. His hair was a mess, spiking each and every way with tracts through it where his fingers had run through, which she knew was habit whenever he was writing something. He'd been working his ass off for two weeks straight, having gone from Seattle to Chicago and back to Seattle again in the course of one week, getting attacked at his godfather's birthday party, and now had less than two days to finalize next month's issue of 'The Reality'.   
"I don't know how you do it." Kat said somewhat exasperated.  
Logan looked up, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Do what."  
"You have probably gotten all of twelve hours of sleep in the past week, and you are here, not complaining in the least."  
Logan laughed. "I guess it is in the genes. My dad was a workaholic too. I…" He trailed off as he stared blankly ahead for a moment. "That's it." He whispered.  
"Huh?" Kat asked perplexed. "What?"  
Logan grinned up at her boyishly. He quickly scrawled his signature on the last of the memos and handed them to her even as he turned to tap a key on his laptop to unlock the screensaver.   
Kat barely noticed the sudden change in pace for Logan, as was another habit of his. Some random inspiration would hit him and he would jump head first into whatever it was, whether it was writing a controversial editorial, or searching for a hard to find doll to add to his beloved nieces collection.   
"Call me if you need anything, Mr. Cale." Kat said, which was probably lost on Logan as his fingers were rapidly flying over the keys, his brow furrowed as he stared intently on the screen in front of him.   
"That's it." Logan muttered under his breath as he pulled up an Internet search engine.   
The only possible way that that tiny woman had pulled off what she did was if she was enhanced. Sure, he'd heard the old urban legends when he'd been in high school about the soldiers that had been trained from birth to kill, and these children having super human powers. But that's all they were, urban legends.   
But the concept of genetic engineering was far from being an urban legend. Before the Pulse, genetic engineering had been one of the fastest growing fields in medicine, with some of the most successful treatments and preventions of cancer and leukemia coming from the works of geneticists.   
Logan watched the cursor blink in the search bar, wondering where he should start. Deciding that he had nowhere to look but the obvious.  
gene therapy  
Logan hit the search key, and waited.  
Over 8745 matches.  
Logan sighed as he clicked on the first match. It was going to be a long morning.   
  
After several hours of searching, note taking, and dead end phone calls, Logan was quickly becoming frustrated. There was absolutely no evidence of any sort of gene therapy, genetic engineering, or anything close to a description of what he had witnessed in Phillip's office a couple days ago.   
After spending twenty minuets on hold with a idiot doctor who not only had no idea what Logan was talking about, most of the time he hadn't know what he was talking about himself, Logan decided that he was dedicating five more minuets to this and if he didn't find anything, it was time to move on.   
Picking his last website, Logan clicked on the link.   
Expert Speaks on Genetic Engineering at the University of California  
Logan sat back as the page loaded, pulling his glasses off his face and scrubbed his fingers over his eyes in frustration.   
As he read the article, Logan's eyes widened. "Oh my god." He muttered.   
He reached over and hit the intercom and stabbed the button with a finger as he picked up his pen and started to scribble furiously on the pad of paper in front of him.   
"Kat, I need you to track down a number for me. Last name Lydecker. Donald Lydecker."  
  
Two days later, Logan walked down the Klein Street; warily approaching the park bench Lydecker had directed him too. Then man had been extraordinarily creepy, in Logan's opinion.   
When Kat had finally traced down a Colonel Donald Lydecker, now stationed at a Sedro Island, eighty miles south of Seattle, Logan had spent twenty minuets gathering all the information he could on the man before he'd made any calls at all.   
His main question was, why was an expert on genetic engineering stationed at a SAC Air Force Base?   
After he'd placed the call to Lydecker, it had taken him almost forty-five minuets and the rescheduling of the board meeting he was supposed to be attending, for Logan to finally reach the man he was looking for. Once he'd spoken to him, Logan requested a meeting instead of speaking over the phone. When Lydecker had asked about what, he's merely spoken two words before Lydecker had agreed to the meeting. Human Prototypes.   
So here he was, approaching the bench where he was supposed to meet Lydecker. There was a tall dark looking man sitting at the bench.   
Logan approached quickly, stepping up next to the man as he pushed his hands into the pockets of the trench coat he wore over a dark suit. "Could I bother you for the time, sir." Logan asked politely.   
The man turned to study him. "You Cale?" He asked briskly.   
"That's me. You Lydecker."  
Before the man said a word, a soldier dressed in full TAC uniform struck Logan over the back of the head with the butt of a gun.   
In a very quick and efficient manner, Logan's unconscious body was bound and a cover pulled over his head as they loaded him into the back of a dark unmarked van that had pulled up to the curb a moment before.  
Tires squealed as the van tore away from the curb and down the street. 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: You'll have to excuse the extreme delay in updates on all of my stories. I really dont have an excuse other than a complete lack in motivation. If I didnt have to take all the time to convert everything into a text file, I might be a little more motivated, but I digress. I have just got done a long day of work, and bloody hell am I tired! I am going to post at least 3 chapters, I hope you enjoy them. I have up to chapter 12 done, and 13 is halfway done. Its going to be about 50 chapters in all, so I hope you bear with me. Thanks to all my supporters who have reviewed, I really do appriceate it. More thanks to my beta's who have put up with all my bullshit. Anna, you kept this chapter from being a pile of crap, so I thank you.  
  
  
Chapter Four  
When Logan surfaced, dazed and disoriented, he found himself sitting; his hands bound behind his back, sitting slumped over in a chair, a long metal table directly in front of him. The only light in the room came from a naked bulb directly over his head.   
Speaking of his head, it was throbbing, a pulsing pain coursing through his skull focused on the base of his neck where he'd been struck.   
Logan had no more time to gauge his surroundings, as the door cracked open, bright light spilling into the room momentarily as a figure dressed in a dark suit stepped in, shutting the door behind him. "Mr. Cale, I see you're awake."  
"What the hell is going on?" Logan asked, hoping his voice didn't sound as weak as he felt.   
"Oh, you wanted to meet with me right. Donald Lydecker. I'd offer to shake your hand, but" Lydecker gestured to Logan's bound hands as he sat down in the chair across the table, "you seem to be incapacitated. How's the head?" He asked with mock sympathy.   
"Fine." Logan said, uselessly trying to free his hands. "Tell me, why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to be the average meeting I expected it to be."  
"Your problem, this should teach you to dig into matters that you shouldn't."  
"Oh, but you'd be surprised how little I know." Logan said, as his brain cleared his mind became to calculate, wondering how exactly he was going to get out of this situation.   
"Tell me what you do know." Lydecker said coolly, dropping the sarcastic concern and crossing his hands.   
Logan decided that it would probably be best to deal straight with this guy. He seemed slightly serious, being willing to kidnap a semi-famous journalist to keep whatever it was that he had uncovered from being exposed. "A little over a week ago, I witnessed what I believed to be a enhanced human prototype, the sort of theoretical prototype that you spoke about at the University of California last year."  
"Is that all you know?" Lydecker asked after considering this for a moment.   
"That is all I am willing to say at the moment." Logan said easily.   
Lydecker reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small but deadly looking handgun. "I suggest you tell me what you know Mr. Cale. I have no problem with killing you." He said in a low voice as he pulled back the hammer and pointed to gun at Logan's chest.  
Logan leaned forward in his chair. "Well Mr. Lydecker, I figure you have two options here." He said in a casual voice, quickly gaining the upper hand. "You can one, agree to talk to me. Or two, you can find out what I know through the various torture methods I know you are more than happy to use against me, then kill me. You'll bury my body nice and deep so no one ever finds me, but there is one thing you wouldn't have known. I already had enough information to write a neat little three-page article on the covert genetics lab, known as Project Manticore, and it is locked away in a safe place. You also wouldn't have known that I left a message with my secretary that if anything is to happen to me, that article is supposed to run in not only my magazine, but the magazines of every major news magazine in the country."  
Lydecker stared at Logan unwaveringly. "Do you have any idea what you'd do if you published some half-assed article? Do you have any idea how many lives you endanger, if not kill?"  
"That is why I am here. I want to get your side of the story, with that make a informed and well rounded article."  
"Do you think that just because it is informed, it will put the people you are speaking of in any less danger? These prototypes are top secret, no one outside of the highest military clearance knows of them. Even the slightest publicity of there existence will destroy them." Lydecker said impatiently.  
"Or," Logan interjected. "It could make them ten times better. I assume they are working for the government, and that they are basically paid assassins. So what if the public was to know of them, do you think that would change the way they go to work everyday? It wouldn't mean more or less to them at all."  
"It isn't the everyday public I care about. It is the hundreds of foreign countries that would love to get a hold of the prototypes genetic code, those who would know what to expect, those that would kill a prototype just because they could. Any exposure to them is like signing their death warrant." Lydecker lowered the gun, and releasing the hammer, it disappeared behind his jacket again.  
"Well, let's face it. It is only a matter of time before this little place of yours is exposed. Whoever it was I saw, whether it was a prototype at all, blew this whole thing open. If I don't publish it, someone else will, and they wont be nearly as nice as I will."  
Lydecker stood, placing his hands on the table. "Do you think you can threaten me? Do you think you can threaten this project?"  
"Do you think you can keep this under wraps for much longer?" Logan shot back.  
Lydecker sat back in his chair. "Mr. Cale, I am trying to appeal to you here. Will you please just walk away from this and leave it alone. It would be best for all parties involved."  
"You know I can't do that."  
Logan watched Lydecker for that moment where the shields dropped and he ran a hand over his face. Lydecker rose silently and walked out of the room, shutting the door quickly behind him.   
Lydecker walked around the corner and into another room where a small group of people sat watching the room where Logan sat on a closed circuit television. "We have to decide what to do."  
All eyes turned from the TV to Lydecker. "What choice do we have? If we kill him, as was the original plan, we'll be exposed without our side of the story. If we let him in, we can at least censor the hell out of everything he rights so it sounds as good as humanly possible." A small blonde woman with a pixie cap of platinum hair spoke authoritatively.   
"Plus," added a black man. "He does have a point. We can't keep this under wraps forever. Maybe we should go public on our own; it'll certainly look better than being exposed with out our consent. We can control the madness that this will create if we have a hand in it."   
Lydecker nodded, glancing at the screen where Logan still sat bound, looking around the room. "Are we in agreement?" One by one, each man and woman in the room nodded. "Ok, well someone untie him and send him into my office, I'll make it so there is no possible way for this to get out of control."  
  
Logan was led, none to gently, by a uniformed soldier, into Lydecker's office a few minuets later. Before the door even shut behind him, Lydecker was speaking. "Everything you write will be censored. Basically, it comes down to the first amendment doesn't apply here. You will stay out of the way. If you are to get into my kids way, if they don't kill you themselves, I will. If you even try and fuck with us, you wont know what hit you. And if you are willing to risk your life to get a Nobel Prize or whatever you get for being a journalist, think first. Are you really willing to risk your life, your magazine, and your family? Your sister and her husband? Your niece?" Logan clenched his jaw to keep himself from saying anything he would regret. Bringing up his sister's family wasn't the smartest thing to do. "Because trust me, the committee will not hesitate to make you cease to exist Manticore." Lydecker finished.  
Logan nodded. "Fine, but I get unrestricted access to this base, to the prototypes, and access to those who trained them." He demanded in a steel voice.   
Lydecker pushed a paper forward to the edge of the desk. "Sign that. Its just your basic contract stating what I have already mentioned."  
Logan stepped forward, and after quickly reading the fine print, he signed his name along the line.   
Lydecker stood, looking none to happy. "Well, may I be the first to welcome you to Project Manticore." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five   
"So, explain to me what Project Manticore is." Logan asked, leaning back in one of the chairs situated in front of Lydecker's desk.   
Lydecker glanced down at the framed photo that sat on the left corner of his desk. From left to right, Tinga, Zane, Jondy, Zack, Max, Syl, and Krit stood together, all but Syl grinning like idiots about whatever they had been talking about at the time. The picture managed to capture each one of their personalities perfectly. Syl being the resident goddess, Zane being to sophisticated for all of them, Krit rolling his eyes at all of them, Zack being way to serious, and Max being the center of attention. If any other person was to see the picture, it would look like any average group of college-aged kids, the oldest being Zack at twenty-five, the youngest Max at twenty-two.  
"Project Manticore was started in the late nineteen nineties by a genetics lab in Wyoming. I came aboard around the last stages of X3, but X4 was my real first group. Group X1 was a failure, they all were so severely deformed that they were not even recognized as human. They had to be destroyed if they didn't survive the first two weeks, which many of them didn't. Then there was group X2, they seemed to be relatively successful until the age of four when they developed severe anomalies. We kept four for research, the rest were also destroyed."  
Logan raised a hand to cut Lydecker off. "There seems to be a lot of destroying going on here."  
"What? Would you rather we had kept them alive, to suffer in the case of the X1s, or chained in some cell so they wouldn't go on a killing rampage in the case of the X2s?"  
"You knew after the first group that these things would happen, why didn't you research them to prevent it?" Logan shot back indignantly.   
"But we did." Lydecker explained bitingly. "The X2s, out of a group of twenty five, only two had deformities, and they weren't nearly as severe as the X1s. With X3, there was only one deformity, and three anomalies."  
"So the X3s were the first success." Logan asked, wishing for a pen and paper to take notes with, although he knew everything his was learning he would never forget no matter how hard he would try.   
"No, the X3s proved to be incapable of learning basically anything at the rate that the X2s had before they developed the anomalies. Eventually, we terminated the X3s."  
"By termination you mean you killed them too." Logan asked somewhat wearily.  
Lydecker stared at Logan over the rims of his wire-framed glasses. "We aren't monsters." He said in a low voice. "We induced them with amnesia and put them into the foster system. As of now they are all leading normal lives. We know because we do keep track of them." He said slowly, with bitterness lacing his words.  
Logan nodded. "So the X4s were your first project."  
"Correct." Lydecker said as he propped his feet up on his desk. "I joined in early 1996 when they were first invtro-ing the surrogate mothers with the X4s. The X4s were the first success that Manticore had ever seen. Out of the twenty-five chimeras, nine of them survived to the age of five. The other thirteen developed either severe seizures or a disorder where they would spontaneously age thirty or so years in just under an hour. Of the twelve that survived that three of them made it past the first ten years of training. Those three died when their plane was shot down over the English Channel during the French Revolution of 2019."  
"That brings you up to X5s."  
"The first X5 was born in February of 1997, the last in July of 2000. We finally go it right with the X5s. They excelled in every single area of combat, explosives, recon, espionage, hand-to-hand combat, and artillery, even transport. They could run faster at the age of 4 than the X4s could at age 10. They could jump higher, swim faster, hold their breath longer, learn quicker, and all around fight harder than any of the previous attempts. Out of the twenty-five, we saw the highest success ratio. Only one died, X5 482 of complications from her seizures. The rest were split into three groups, eight --" Lydecker was cut off as the phone sitting on his desk shrilled.   
"Lydecker." He snapped into the receiver.   
Logan took this moment to absorb the information that he had learned in the last fifteen minuets. When Lydecker got done with his phone call, he was going to ask if he knew of any other organizations that had produced these enhanced human prototypes that he knew of. He wanted to know how a prototype had ended up in his godfather's office, when it was obvious she wasn't of military background. What would the military want with Phillip Costello?  
Lydecker stood as he hung up the phone. "Well, it is your luck day, Mr. Cale. Our two commanding officers of Group X5 are have just gotten back from their mission. Their helicopter has just entered base perimeters. Stay here and let me talk to them before you meet them. It is safe to say that they aren't going to react well to you, especially not Ma-- er, X5-452." He said as he rounded the desk and walked out into the hallway.   
  
Max shook her head, flipping her hair over her shoulder, which proved to be pointless as the wind blowing through the open windows of the small helicopter whipped her hair right back in her face. She tapped her foot lightly against the floor as she looked out the window to the approaching base below. Zack sat next to her, rolling his eyes at Max's constant fidgeting. When she reached up to toy with the dog tags she wore around her neck, a present from Krit on her last birthday, Zack pulled off his sunglasses and turned in his seat to face her. "Would you sit still?" He projected his voice over the loud chopping of the helicopter blades. Max smiled winningly. "I'm just glad to be back. I haven't been on base for about a month, with Mission 945 starting right after I finished 760."  
"Well, your constant moving around is making me even more tired than I already am. You do realize that because I had to go retrieve the Costello information that I haven't slept in over four days?"  
"Not my fault, don't blame me that you didn't get the shark DNA that I got." Max said, her eyes glinting mischievously.   
Zack just rolled his eyes again, pulling his sunglasses back on and leaning his head against the back of the seat as the pilot began to lower the helicopter onto the helipad on Manticore's roof. Max leaned forward, using her telescopic vision to see Lydecker step out of a door, standing on the outskirts of the helipad as the skids touched down. As soon as safe, Max slid open the door and stepped out, the jacket of her black pant suit snapping in the wind behind her as she turned to accept the bags that Zack handed down to her. Together, they jogged across to Lydecker, Max's heeled boots clicking as she easily kept pace with her brother.   
"X5 599 and 452 returning from Mission 945, sir." Zack said as they both came to a stop in front of him, saluting stiffly.   
"Status of mission?" Lydecker asked firmly.   
"Mission objectives complete. After a mishap on the first attempt of the retrieval of the Costello disk, X5 599 was able to gain access to the residence and get the disks." Max rattled unwaveringly.   
"At ease." Lydecker commanded on an afterthought. Both Zack and Max relaxed, Zack crossing his arms, and Max leaning back on her heels. "What was this small mishap and why wasn't I notified of it?"   
"It was nothing we couldn't handle. A relative of Costello entered the office while Max was in the process of cracking the safe. She overpowered him then Zane flew in and she left." Zack explained quickly, coming to his sister's defense. "I broke in last night when Costello left for a meeting and got the disks and was out in a matter of minuets."  
"Fine, Zane and Syl got back yesterday afternoon, they are waiting to run the hand to hand combat practice against the sixers as soon as you two are ready." Lydecker spoke as he turned and the small group started to walk into the building.   
Max and Zack waited patiently for Lydecker to dismiss them, anxious to go see their siblings and run the HH training exercise.   
When Lydecker continued to walk down the hallway towards his office without dismissing them, Max and Zack subtly glanced at each other. "Sir?" Max asked tentatively. "Should we go get ready for hand to hand?"  
"No. We have a situation that you to need to know about."  
Zack and Max followed Lydecker down the hallway, utterly confused about Lydecker's vagueness.   
"We are allowing a journalist access to the base. He is going to do an article on the X5s."  
Max and Zack skidded to a stop. "What?" Zack asked amazed.   
"A journalist?" Max echoed.  
"He somehow was able to find me, and the only way the committee saw to control the backlash of the article he planned to publish was to allow him access then censor the hell out of him."  
Max and Zack followed Lydecker into his office. "Logan Cale, meet the commanding officers of the X5s, X5 599 and 452, otherwise known as Zack and Max."1  
Logan turned himself in his chair and found himself face to face with the woman that he had been obsessing over for the past week.   
Max stood, stunned, as Logan turned around. There was no way. No way at all that Logan Cale, guerilla journalist, and pain in her ass was the journalist that Lydecker had been referring too. When he smiled cockily at her, Max jumper forward, lifting him easily out of his chair and throwing him against the wall.   
"Whoa whoa woah!" Lydecker shouted, but didn't make a move to help Logan.   
Max's hand closed painfully around Logan's throat, holding him against the wall. Logan's hands came up to claw at Max's choking grip. With a feral growl deep in her throat, Max glared unwaveringly into Logan's startled blue eyes. "Max, stop." Lydecker ordered. Lydecker flicked his hand in Zack's direction, which was all the signal he needed to jump forward and pull Max off of Logan. Logan fell to the floor, coughing violently as he gasped in air to his deprived lungs.   
Max rushed forward again, but Zack swung her around, pinning her arms behind her back. Max took a step forward, and winced as Zack tightened his grip, then thought against it. She stilled, but Zack kept her arms behind her back, knowing all to well Max's little issue with her temper. He still had the scars along his back when she knocked his ass through the window of their house last year. All he did was borrow her car and bring it back with a scratch in the paint.   
"This is your journalist?" Max shouted at Lydecker. "Do you realize that this asshole is the reason that mission 945 got screwed up? He tripped a silent alarm on me! Almost got my ass shot! And your letting him do what could be the article of the 21st century on us." Max continued to rage. "No, you get someone else."  
"I'll remind you, X5 452, that I am your commanding officer, and you will mind what you say to me."  
Max immediately shut up. It was very seldom that Lydecker pulled rank, but when he did, you listened and you listened closely. "X5 452, I don't know what history you have with Mr. Cale, and really, I don't care. I am sure I will read all about it when I get your report on mission 945. But you are now going to be working with Mr. Cale for an undefined amount of time." Before Max could protest, Lydecker held up a hand to cut her off. "Yes, that is a direct order, the decision has already been made and finalized by the committee."  
Logan was finally breathing semi-normally again, standing to watch Max's expressive face as Lydecker explained that he was going to have unrestricted access to every aspect of his life. He really wanted to gloat, and grin, and laugh, but getting thrown into walls was quickly getting old.   
"I'd like to express my EXTREME dislike of the arrangement. It is severe tactical exposure." Max said stiffly.  
"So noted." Lydecker shot back. Lydecker and Max competed in a thirty second staring contest before Max spun on her heel and marched out of the room, not before glancing momentarily at Logan, then slamming the door behind her.   
Zack glanced from Lydecker, to Logan, back to Lydecker again. "Permission to speak." He asked quietly, but firmly.   
"Granted." Lydecker said wearily, sinking into the chair behind his desk.   
Zack turned to Logan. "Max will kick your ass if you touch her stuff, and she really doesn't like people shooting at her. If I were you, Id stay the hell out of her way." Zack turned back to Lydecker. "I'm going to go get ready for the hand to hand with the sixers."  
"Dismissed." Lydecker said almost as an afterthought.   
Zack walked out of the room, leaving Lydecker and Logan alone. "Well, I'd like you to watch this training mission. I want you to see exactly what these kids are capable of, so that you know that you can't fuck with us and get away with it." 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six  
Max stalked, still fuming, into what used to be the X5 barracks, now basically the female chimeras changing room. She stalked to her locker and ripped it open, only then noticing the auburn haired female standing next to it. "Oh, hey Jondy."   
Jondy leaned back against the locker behind her, arching a brow at Max's greeting. The way she had just ripped off her jacket and crumpled it into a tiny ball meant only one thing. "I take it your mission didn't go well."  
Max snorted as she started to unbutton her dress shirt. "Actually, the mission was fairly successful after the little mishap I told you about in my email."  
Jondy nodded, her deep blue eyes narrowing as she recalled Max's email. "The godson, set off an alarm or something, right?"  
Max nodded as she pulled a small black tee shirt over her head. "Get this. Zack and I are getting our stuff out of the helicopter, Lydecker standing there, which is weird because this wasn't a high-risk mission or all. It was really a waster of our time."  
Jondy held up a hand to cut Max off. "If it was so simple, why did you have to have an emergency alpha evac?"  
"Because of that evil b**tard walking in on me." Max kicked off the pants of the business suit, turning to talk to her sister as she pulled out a pair of slim black pants. "This only gets better. Like I was saying, Lydecker is standing there, we go over to talk to him, we get to his office, and guess who is there? Logan F**king Cale." Max snapped, pulling off her necklace.  
Jondy laughed. "No way! What the hell is he doing here."  
Max gritted her teeth. "For whatever reason, Lydecker is letting the son of a b**tch do an article in his little freedom fighting magazine."  
Jondy's mouth dropped open in shock. "You mean…"  
"Yep."   
"On us…"  
"Uh-Huh."  
"What the hell!" Jondy shouted.  
"My thoughts exactly." Max finished as she pulled on a formfitting black vest over the tee shirt, her head pounding in the early dredges of a migraine.   
"How in the hell does a person that f**ked up your mission get to do what could potentially be the article of a century in a top secret military facility?"  
"I don't know, and I got the authoritative bitch slap when I pointed all this out. Lydecker pulled rank and told me to get over it."  
"What's Zack think about all this, him being the CO and all."  
Max smiled slyly. "He was to busy holding me back from snapping Cale's interfering little neck to make much of a comment."  
Jondy smiled back. "Nice, Maxie, nice." Jondy stood silent as Max tied back her hair. "They shipped Tinga off this morning." She said quietly.   
"Damn." Max whispered. "I meant to be back before they sent her out."  
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure she'll be in touch." Jondy said, brushing a hand over her dark red hair.   
Max finished pulling the last of her clothing on, the finishing touch being the blue-lensed sunglasses out of her locker and hooking them onto the collar of her shirt. "Aiight, Syl, Zane, and Krit already here?" Max asked as she stretched her arms over her head.  
"Yeah, they are waiting in the conference room, the Sixers are waiting in their barracks." Jondy replied, both of the women easily transitioning from their relationship as siblings to that of fellow military officers.   
"Standard Hand to Hand, right?" Max asked as they walked out into the hallway, falling into step next to Zack, who had also changed into similar combat clothing.   
"Hey Zack." Jondy said.  
"Hey Jonds." Zack replied, and that was as much of a greeting as they would have time for, as the three pushed through a set of doors into a small room where three other similarly dressed people where waiting. There was Syl, with her long blonde hair knotted on top of her head, Zane, with his feet propped up on the table, and Krit, looking pissed at everything as was his usual style.   
  
Logan and Lydecker sat on the other side of the two-way glass, observing as Max and Jondy fell into formation along the table, Zack standing at the end delving out orders.   
"This is a basic Hand to Hand exercise." Lydecker explained quietly. "The X5's will be competing against the X6s. A Fiver and a Sixer will enter this room," Lydecker gestured to another room behind him, clear glass window portioning the two rooms. "It is one on one hand to hand, no weapons. Each of the prototypes are trained in several forms of combat. We try to pair them on level. The X5 hand to hand expert will go against the expert from the X6s."  
Logan nodded his understanding silently. Lydecker turned to gesture to a set of eight televisions behind them. Lydecker leaned over and pressed a button, speaking into a microphone. "Ok, X5 452 and X6 196, your up first."   
  
Zack, Max, Jondy, Zane, Krit, and Syl sat in a small room, silent, as their training over took instinct to talk amongst themselves. Max heard her name called, then stiffly stood, pulling her jacket, leaving her in a form fitting sleeveless shirt. She tossed her jacket on the conference table as she walked out of the room.   
Logan turned to watch a tall blonde female walk into the room, obviously Max's upcoming opponent. "That is Caryn, commander of the X6s."  
Max stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. The two females went trough a quick series of stretches, each going through their own pattern of preparation of the fight they were about to engage in.   
Logan stared, transfixed, as Max slowly stretched her bare, well-toned arms over her head.   
Caryn and Max walked to opposite corners, standing at attention as they waited for the command to start. Max stared ahead, her stony, her eyes ablaze with the anticipation of her upcoming spar, hand to hand combat being one of her favorite exercises, and one for which she had always excelled. And now she was going to have the opportunity to kick the crap out of the one person out of all of the X6s that she hated with a passion. It was not humanly possible to speak badly about one of Max's siblings and get away with it. It just wasn't possible.   
Lydecker's voice echoed out of the small intercom. "Begin."  
Max took five leaping steps forward, immediately spinning into a roundhouse kick, Caryn blocked Max's kick, grabbing her leg and pushing her back. Max quickly flipped backwards into a back handspring, landing solidly as she rushed forward again. Caryn threw her fist forward, her first mistake, as Max grabbed her arm and swung her around, throwing her arm over her shoulder and tossing her to the ground. In a whirl of motion, Caryn had flipped onto her back and onto her feet, her arms raised in a defensive stance.   
Logan watched expressionless as the two females jumped forward again, their movements almost untraceable to the human eye. 'The human eye.' He thought wirily as Max swept her feet under Caryn's, her plan only being foiled by Caryn's rolling flip over her head. 'Well, I don't really know what to call these people. Can they even be considered people?' He didn't have time to analyze his current situation as he watched Max land a kick solidly in Caryn's stomach. Caryn's flinch was momentary and fleeting at most, but it was the exact timing that Max needed spin Caryn around and lock her arms around her neck in a punishing grip. "Kill!" Max shouted.   
"Confirmed. X5 599 and X6 240 up next." Lydecker answered into the intercom.   
Max dropped her arms from around Caryn's neck. "B**ch." Caryn muttered out of breath as she stood.   
"Oh, same goes." Max said sweetly as they walked towards their respective exits. Zack was just stepping into the room as Max reached the door. "Nice job, Maxie." He whispered as they passed.   
As Max pulled the elastic band from her hair and shook her curling brown locks, she sincerely hoped that Cale had stuck around for her little show. He was quickly finding himself at the top of her personal hit list, plus, it was always nice to see snobby trust fund babies squirm. 


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Personal favorite of mine, hope you enjoy.  
  
Chapter Seven   
Logan sat with Lydecker another moment, inside the dim conference room as the last pair of transgenetic soldiers filtered out of the room. "Do you want a tip?" Lydecker asked as he turned to walk in to the building.   
"Sure." Logan asked as he followed.   
"If you go to their house, bring them food. You can win over any of them, especially Max and Zane, with food."  
"Wait, they don't live on base? I figured they would be living in barracks here."  
"They did until the age of eighteen, then we let them all move off base." Lydecker explained. "Several of them stayed, but one of the groups of X5s bought a big house out in the middle of nowhere, about twenty minuets from here. Whenever they aren't deployed they all stay there. We let them live off base mainly because they have very few options in their lives, but they'll never do something they don't want to." Lydecker stepped up to the door to his office. "If you want the military side of the story, you'll find it here. You want to know what these people are really like, you'll find it when they are at home."  
  
Several hours later, after the sun had set, and much of the world was asleep, Logan found himself driving on a long gravel driveway in the middle of nowhere. He as surrounded on both sides by trees, and briefly wondered if Lydecker's plan had been to get him lost in the middle of the woods to effectively end the story.   
Well, Logan thought as he jammed on the brakes to narrowly miss hitting some random animal that had darted across the road, he very well may have succeeded.   
Just when Logan was about to turn around and admit defeat, twin headlights cut across the darkness from behind him, Logan glanced in the rearview to see a cherry red MG convertible approaching behind him at a breakneck speed. The car passed him, driving up beside him dangerously close in the narrow rode. Logan heard the loud music blaring out of the car's speakers, and he glanced over momentarily to see the driver's curling hair whipping in the wind behind her. He didn't have any more time to examine the woman, as she recklessly swung in front of Logan, leaving only inches between the back of her car and the front of Logan's. Logan swore as he slammed on the breaks and swerved left to avoiding hitting her, which ended up being arbitrary as she sped up to be going well over the legal speed limit, and tires squealed as the tiny convertible swung into a driveway on the right side of the road.   
Logan finally backed himself out of the small ditch he had ended up in after he had ran off the road. Pulling back into the proper lane, Logan pulled up to the gravel driveway he had seen the insane driver pull into. There was a large house, huge in fact, lights blazing in most of the windows. It looks like Lydecker hadn't been lying. There were at least five cars parked in the driveway, including the MG that had almost gotten him killed moments before.   
Logan drove slowly down the driveway, wondering exactly what he was getting himself into. It was one thing to write an article on super soldiers, but it was quite another to go to their house in the middle of the night. Logan t thinking, Logan reached up and rubbed the back of his head, where there was still a large lump. Being smacked over the back of the head with a blunt object had a tendency to do that to you.   
Logan parked his SUV next to a mean looking Corvette and grabbed the stack of pizza boxes sitting on the passenger seat. Lydecker said bring food, and if that would keep him from getting his ass kicked again, then he'd bring food, and lots of it. But chances were that they would eat the pizza, and then kick his ass anyway.   
  
Max dropped the bag of groceries onto the kitchen counter with a thump. "No Zane." She said decisively. "We aren't watching any of your subtitle French crap."  
"It isn't crap, Maxie." Zane shot back as he through a bag of popcorn in the microwave. "It is artistic. I don't see why you hate subtitles when you speak French anyway."  
"Doesn't matter." Max said as she pulled off her light jacket and tossed it on a chair. Zane and Max had just gotten back from raiding the groceries and picking up movies for the night ahead. "Your movies suck anyway." She finished with a grin.  
"What, so your movies, where there is absolutely no plot what so ever and everything gets blown up, that is better?"  
"Of course it is!" Max said.   
"Would you two quit bickering for five minuets?" Jondy asked as she walked into the room, dropping onto a chair at the table.  
Zane and Max pretended to think. "No." They both said at the same time.   
"I'm going to go change." Max said over her shoulder as she and Zane walked out of the room.   
Max was bounding up the stairs two at a time when the doorbell rang. "Someone get that!" She shouted as she rounded the corner. She passed Zack's closed door, as usual he was locked inside working away at breaking the encryption codes on the disks he'd gotten out of Phillip Costello's office earlier in the week. "Movie starts in ten!" She shouted as she hit the door with the side of her fist. Max grinned as she heard Zack's muttered curse.   
  
When Syl opened the door, the last person she expected to see was Logan Cale standing on their front porch with a stack of pizza boxes. But since she smelled pepperonis, she had no choice but to be nice. "Mr. Cale." She said with a southern drawl. "I see you've come to visit us in our humble abode."   
"Yeah." Logan said somewhat cautiously. "Lydecker told me where you guys lived. You don't mind do you?"   
Syl cocked an eyebrow. Did they mind? Sure. Did they have a choice? No. Lydecker had specifically ordered them to corporate with him, in every aspect of their lives. This included their private lives, one for which even Lydecker knew very little about. "Oh its no problem." She said sweetly. Well, it wouldn't be until Max found out. "Come on in."  
Logan found himself inside a brightly lit foyer, a set of carpeted stairs to his left, two glass doors to his right leading to what was obviously a living room, with a bunch of over sized chairs and a set of couches situated around a large entertainment center. "Nice place." Logan commented as he followed Syl into a pristine white kitchen.   
"Thanks. We moved in here almost four years ago, we haven't gotten sick of it yet." Syl said as she took the pizza boxes from Logan's hands. He couldn't tell if she was just being polite or just really wanted pizza. "But considering the barracks back at the base was the only home we knew before this, this is pretty damn nice, isn't it." Syl added as she pulled a stack of paper plates out of an oak cupboard.   
Logan was semi-surprised at Syl's talkativeness. Out of all the X5s he'd had the *joy* of meeting personally, one had tried to snap his neck, and the other probably would have wanted too if his superior hadn't intervened. But this one hadn't thrown him into any walls yet, and was openly talking to someone she knew that would be writing about her. "So where is everyone?" He asked cautiously.   
As if on cue, there was a high pitched scream from the second floor. Logan's head shot around to look up at the open hallway over the kitchen in time to see a flash of vivid purple streak by. "Max!" Logan saw Zack run by after her. There was the loud pound of feet on steps and a moment later, Max ran into the kitchen, a huge grin plastered on her face, her violet robe flapping behind her as she ran to jumped behind Syl. "Save me!" She shrieked as Zack skidded into the room.   
Logan took one big step back as his gaze landed on the butcher's block full of black handled knives. Max. Sharp instruments. Not a good combination considering he was still in the room. But the way the boxer shorts she was wearing showed off her long, tan legs… Logan rolled his eyes skyward and wondered if stab wounds were really all that bad.   
"Give it back, Max." Zack said firmly as he stepped up to the opposite side of the counter.   
"What, this?" Max asked innocently as she pulled a black plastic rectangle from behind her back, which Logan recognized as a laptop battery. "Give it back, Maxie. I have stuff to do." Zack snapped.  
"Oh, poor Zackie, he was drug away from his precious computer for five damn minuets. How can you ever forgive me?" Max asked as the pair circled the counter.   
"Max, I'm serious here. I have to break those codes." Zack said scowling as he advanced on Max.   
Max grinned wickedly and then darted forward and past Zack, who in turn whirled and gabbed her around the waist, picking her off her feet. Max screeched again as Zack grabbed the battery out of her hand and dropped her unceremoniously on her feet.   
"Bon essai, petite soeur, mais tu peux toujours courir." Zack said in perfect French as he walked out of the room.   
"Ne va pas penser que tu ne vas pas aller au cinéma avec moi ce soir!" Max shot back with an expert accent. Max walked back into the kitchen, and for the first time since she'd run into the room, noticed Logan's presence. She opened her mouth to make some threats of bodily harm, but then she was distracted. "What the--Oh! Pizza!" She said in a pleased voice as she rounded the counter to where Syl stood silently munching away at her piece. She pulled a piece out of the box, and took a few big bites as she did her best to ignore Logan.   
Logan contemplated this change in personality. All he'd seen of Max was the cold, bitter side, one which spit out military jargon as easily as it kicked the a** of a fellow soldier. But now it seemed she had a whole other side that ran around in a little tiny tank top (one that was very sexy, in Logan's opinion) and harassed her brother like any little sister would do. And it seemed Lydecker was right that food was a major winner, one that might keep his a** from getting kicked.   
"You know, I would kick you out of my house in the most painful way possible." Max said around a mouthful of pepperoni and sausage pizza. "But there is two things that are holding me back. One, Lydecker specifically told me to cooperate. Two, you brought me pizza."  
Logan considered his options. He could stay out of her way, which would probably be safest because it didn't seem that she would be warming to this situation anytime soon. But where would the fun in that be? "Nice robe." He commented, grinning mischievously. "Didn't think you military people would be into purple silk."  
Max cursed inwardly. She hated being caught off guard, especially when it was *him* doing the catching, and she viewed being caught at home with her defenses down one of those moments. "Oh yeah, I picked this up in Japan last year. I think I went out and bought this after I assassinated the prime minister." Max said seriously, meeting Logan's gaze steadily, trying to gain the upper hand.   
"Must bring back some fond memories, huh?" Logan said easily.   
Max arched a brow, impressed. She figured Logan to be some spoiled rich boy who had no idea what the real world was like in post-pulse America. But he didn't even seem the least bit thrown off by her proclamation. He'd probably be disappointed to know that Tinga had given it to her last Christmas.  
Syl finally spoke up for the first time in a several minuets. "I have to ask, Mr. Cale--"  
"Please, call me Logan." Logan said politely, to which Max snorted rudely.   
Syl choked back the laughter that was bubbling in her stomach. It was so obvious that Max was flustered by Logan's presence; she got like this whenever she didn't know what to do. "I have to know, after all of this, why aren't you afraid of us. You've seen what we are capable of, Lydecker has told you what we can, and have done. Why are you still here?"  
Logan seemed to consider the question for a moment. "Honestly." He said quietly. "I have no idea."   
Max muttered something under her breath, which sounded mysteriously like 'a**hole'. But still, he once again impressed her. Others would have run like hell soon as she'd taken beaten the hell out of him, then taken out a group of armed guards, on principal alone. But he was still here, much to her frustration. "Come on, Syl, let's get everyone together, I'd like to get this movie going before we have to leave for base tomorrow." Max said as she walked out of the room.   
Syl stood in the kitchen, finishing off her slice of pizza as Max screamed up the stairs. "Movie starting in five, get your asses down here!"  
"You're more than welcome to stay, if you'd like. We are going to watch a couple of movies, pig out of everything we can get our hands on. Its sort of tradition."  
"What do you mean tradition?" Logan asked as Syl began gathering up the various boxes of pizza and grabbed the bag of popcorn out of the microwave.   
"Max and Zack just got back from a bunch of missions. This is their first night back after about a month. Whenever one of us goes away for a while, when they get back we have a big movie fest." Syl said as she walked out of the room. Logan followed her down the hallway and into the living room where three people, Jondy, Krit, and Max already sat. Syl dropped the pizza boxes onto the table and flopped onto a oversized leather chair.   
"I smell pizza." Zane said as he appeared in the doorway. His eyes lit up when he saw the boxes sitting on the table, and much like Max seemed to miss the fact that Logan was in the room. "Where's Zack?" He asked as he stretched out across a couch. Max stood and walked across the room to pick up a phone and dialed a series of numbers. Logan watched the scene unfold in front of him, carefully observing and taking mental notes. The group of young men and women looked nothing alike, every range of nationality being represented, but they were so obviously family it was almost heartbreaking to think of what they were capable of.   
Logan distantly heard a phone ring. "Zackie dear." Max said sweetly. "Get your ass downstairs or I will come up there and make you come down….No…I don't care…you have all of tomorrow. Bite me. Right…" Max hung up the phone. "He'll be down in a minute she announced to the room in general, and true to word Zack jogged down the stairs a moment later.   
"Max, my cell is for emergencies only. How many times do I have to tell you that before you'll stop calling me to ask me to pick you up shampoo or come downstairs?" He asked, annoyed as he brushed past Logan to stand in front of the TV.   
"I'll never learn, will I?" Max said mockingly. "Now get out of my way, I can't see the TV. But while your there, be a dear and pop in the movie?"   
Max stretched out on the floor, Zane tossing her a pillow. "Logan, if your going to hang around here and annoy the hell out of me, the least you can do is sit down and get out of my site." She waved a hand at him, which Logan figured was going to be as much of an invitation as he was going to get.  
  
It was interesting watching 'The Matrix' with a group of genetically enhanced killing machines who spent the whole movie making comments like 'That's easy' and 'We did that once.' But it was also very informative for Logan. These weren't half humans, as he fleetingly thought earlier in the day. These were merely people who were better than most. There was Jondy who used Zane's leg as a pillow and fell asleep halfway through the movie, and Zack who tried his best to look annoyed about the wasted time, but was still enjoying himself. There was Krit who didn't talk much, well, at all for that matter, but looked like he was absorbing every detail of what was going on around him, and Syl whose eyes were drooping by the end, and Max who consumed an entire pizza on her own. If Logan hadn't known any better, he'd think these people were just some group of friends hanging out together on a Friday night, instead of the million dollar technology that they were. And he wondered how he was supposed to write a article about killing machines the government had been hiding when he now had the mental image of them running around their house bickering amongst themselves.   



	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
"I don't know why you let him stay here." Max mumbled around a mouth full of cereal the next morning.  
"Because," Syl replied patiently as she picked up her own bowl, her heels clicking on the floor as she dropped it into the sink. Unlike Max, who was still lounging around in her robe, Syl was dressed and ready to walk out the door in her dark green pantsuit, her hair braided back into a classic French twist. "The poor man looked asleep on his feet, and he was looking at almost a thirty minute drive to get back to his place. It just wouldn't have been safe for him to drive."  
"So, he's currently sleeping in Tinga's room. Ok, Syl, that was smart." Max said with a huff.  
"Max, you need to relax!" Syl admonished as she brushed a loose wisp of blonde hair off her face. "It looks like we are going to working with Logan for a while, and it is only going to make it more difficult if you make some rude comment whenever his name is brought up. Why don't you try something new and innovative, and be nice to someone for a change."  
Max stared at Syl wide eyed. "Now why and the hell would I do that?" She sounded genuinely confused.   
"Because, Maxie," Syl said leaning against the table on her elbows. "We need to kiss this guy's ass. If he finds out we are working to get his godfather put away for a long, long time, then he could tip Costello, and our six months of work would be shot straight to hell. Logan might even be able to inadvertently help us, if we play this right."  
Max sulked into her cereal, knowing perfectly well that she was right. "Man, this sucks." She muttered after a minuet.  
Syl smiled one of million dollar smiles that were just as big of a weapon as the explosives she excelled in. "You know what else sucks, Maxie my dear? The fact that you have exactly twenty minutes to get ready if you want to get to base in time."  
Syl had the joy of watching Max's head whip around to look at the clock hanging on the wall behind her. "Shit." She swore as she flew out of her chair.  
"Maxie? Do me a favor and wake up Logan why you're up there." Syl shouted after her as she fled the room.  
Max swore again as she ran up the stairs towards her bedroom. Hell if she wanted to see Logan more than she absolutely had too. Max stepped up to the door, which was normally Tinga's, and taking a deep breath, she opened it.   
For whatever reason, seeing Logan sprawled across the bed on his stomach, deeply asleep, Max took a moment to simply stare.   
It wasn't as if she hadn't seen a man sleep before, she had over eight brothers and at times lived with all of them. But the fact was, that even if she hated the man with a passion, he wasn't her brother. 'And he is good looking.' Max conceded as she tapping a finger against her lip. The fact that he wasn't wearing glasses at the time totally changed the way he looked. Max fleetingly wondered if his eyes were more or less noticeable with them off. 'It's a shame he's on the very top of my very short hit list.' Max thought.  
  
Logan was quite glad there was at least one X5 who didn't want various pieces of him in a pine box. Syl was nice enough to offer to let him stay, which was good because after a week of non-stop work, getting kidnapped, getting thrown into a couple of walls, well it was bound to make a guy tired. So after a quick trip out to the trunk of his car, and grabbing the bag he'd always kept in the trunk containing extra clothes, he'd fallen face down onto the floral print quilt and hadn't moved until Max's words interrupted his slumber.  
"Yo, if you plan on coming to the base with us, you might want to join us in the land of the living." Max said in a cold voice. When Logan dared to crack an eye open, he saw her standing in the doorway, her hand on her hip as she spoke, her face impassive. 'God, she had nice legs.' Was Logan's drowsy conclusion as he picked up his glasses from the nightstand.  
When he looked up again, Max was gone, the door empty. As he rolled out of bed, his feet hitting the floor with an unbalanced thump, he heard the sound of a shower turning on.  
He quickly dressed, ending up in the kitchen doorway a few minuets later. It was kind of odd being the only normal person, per say, in a kitchen full of X5s, very late X5s, and all he wanted was a cup of coffee. All he wanted was a damn cup of coffee. 'Please, just give me coffee!' Logan mentally begged as he pulled off his glasses for a moment to rub his eyes.   
"We don't have time to wait for her." Zack snapped, standing next to the door in a dark suit, his ID clipped to his lapel, a black laptop bag hanging off his shoulder. Zane was dressed similarly, a set of headphones on his ears as he quietly hummed along with the violin concerto that was currently in the CD player he carried in his hand. He would have looked like any shrewd businessman, but the backpack thrown over his shoulder confused the picture.  
"Then go, she can take her car. As fast as she drives, she very well might beat us there." Syl said complacently as she finished off her mug of coffee. She glanced up and saw Logan standing uncomfortably in the doorway. "Good morning," She said brightly.   
"Hi." Logan muttered. 'Caffeine…'   
"Did you sleep alright? I have no idea what state Tinga's room was in before she left, could have been absolutely immaculate or it could have been a hell hole." She continued while standing to dump her dishes into the full sink.   
"It was fine." Logan's voice was distorted with sleep. The four hours of sleep he'd gotten didn't even begin to make up what he'd been lacking.  
"Coffee's over there if you want any." Syl offered, pointing to a glass decanter on a counter.   
Zane, Syl, Zack, and Jondie, who'd just walked into the room, admired how quick Logan had moved to the coffee pot. Especially for a norm.  
"Ok, Krit already left, Zane and I are taking my car, Syl, you and Jondie going taking hers?" Syl nodded her agreement. "Ok, then, let's go." Zack urged as he pushed open the back door.   
Syl rolled her eyes as she and Jondie took their good old time. "Well if your nice, Logan, Max might let you meet Ramon." Jondie said as she picked up her oversized handbag.   
"Ramon?" Logan asked as he inhaled the beautiful sent of Columbian coffee.  
"Yeah, she'll enjoy your reaction to Ramon. She's sick like that." Syl added.  
"Whose Ramon?" Logan repeated.  
"Max and Ramon, they've had a long and dramatic love affair." Jondie said with a sigh as she headed towards the door. "Its kind of sad how much of her free time she spends with him."  
'So Miss Max had a boyfriend,' Logan thought, and wondered why he felt disappointed.   
Syl and Jondie exchanged a look. This whole Logan Cale situation was going to be more interesting than they had expected. "Well, tell Max we have mission briefing at ten if you see her."   
Logan watched the two blonde women walk out of the door and heard the roar of an engine as they drove off.  
He had just been finishing off his second cup of coffee when Max walked quickly into the kitchen. She was wearing a lovely little black skirt and red dress shirt that showed off the legs that he so admired and her still-wet hair was knotted loosely on top of her head. When she spotted him leaning against the center island, she scowled at him for a moment before saying "Ugh, your still here?"  
Logan had to smile at that. It was so easy, and so much fun, to patronize her. "'Fraid so. Syl told me to tell you 'Mission Briefing at ten.'"  
"You aren't coming to the base today, are you?" Max muttered as she threw various food products into her shoulder bag. A girl had to eat, and there was absolutely nothing on Manticore's base that was worthy of human consumption.   
"Oh, you wound me, Max." Logan said with a grin. "Of course I'll be there."  
Max scowled. What were they thinking letting the godson of the man they were doing the mission briefing on near the base. Lydecker had to be doing some extracurricular activities involving a crack pipe. "Whatever." She said as she pulled a travel coffee cup out of a cupboard. "Just stay the hell out of my way."  
"Max, can we make a deal?" Logan asked quietly after a moment, her anger quickly losing its appeal. "It's obvious that we aren't going to be able to agree on this, so why don't we say this. I'll stay out of your way as much as humanly possible, and you'll cooperate with me when I absolutely need you too."  
"Now why would I agree to do anything to help you?" Max asked in an overly friendly voice as she headed towards the door.  
"Because this article is obviously going to be done no matter how much you piss and moan about it, Max." Logan said in a deadly calm voice that made Max stop in her tracks. "So lets just make this as easy as possible on us both."  
Max turned on her heel and frowned. "Fine, you stay the hell out of my way, I'll stay the hell out of yours. Shouldn't be all that hard. Now if you'll excuse me, I am late, and I need to be getting to my mission briefing."  
"One last favor." Logan said as Max was walking out the door. "Mind driving me? I have no idea how to get there from here."  
"Didn't you drive in here last night? Just go backwards brainiac." Max said as she rounded the side of the house, Logan in tail.   
"No, someone drove me back to my car in Seattle, I drove in from there."  
"What happened to staying out of my way?" Max asked perplexed as she pulled the keys out of her bag.   
"Your not going to let me get lost, are you?" Logan frowned as Max unlocked the door to her MG. "This is your car?"  
"Yeah, that why I am getting into it." Max said as she shut the driver's side door.   
"Do you realize that you almost killed me?!" Logan said, his voice rising.  
"You're going to have to have to be more specific to the situation you are referring too, I remember several times where this has occurred." Max said, smiling evilly.  
"I'm talking about last night when you ran me off the road!" Logan snapped.   
"Blue, really ugly looking car?" Max asked with a big happy smile glancing over her shoulder to look at Logan's Aztec that was currently parked on the other side of Syl's car.   
Logan was completely confused when Max burst into uncontrolled hysterical laughter. "What?"  
"Oh, I'll drive you, mainly because your car sucks and you shouldn't have to be seen in it." Max said after she'd controlled her laughter.   
"What's wrong with my car?" Logan asked, scratching the back of his head.  
She chuckled again. "Do you want it alphabetically or chronologically? Because I am embarrassed just having that thing in my driveway. Now hurry up and get it, I'd like to get to base before Lydecker sends out a search party."  
Logan was had just sat down in the seat and was closing the door when Max gunned the engine and threw the car into reverse. Logan was thrown forward against the dashboard, tires squealed, and Max pushed the car to about sixty as she flew up the driveway.   
Logan grabbed the door handle with one hand as he quickly pulled on his seatbelt with the other. "Max," He yelped as she fishtailed onto the main road. "Aren't you going a bit…uh…fast?"  
Max grinned as she changed gears. "I'm barely going seventy. This is rather slow for me." She said handling the sharp curves between the trees with relative ease.  
Logan was fairly sure she wasn't kidding, especially when she tore out of the trees she had been weaving though, out onto a bright, open road.  
Max pulled to a skidding halt at a stop sign, and with barely a pause, executed a left hand turn.  
"You shouldn't be allowed to drive. Your insane." Logan muttered grumpily as Max passed a slow pick up truck.   
Max turned momentarily in her seat to flash a grin at Logan. "Ramon and I usually get along pretty well, but right now he's mad at me."   
  
Logan scowled at the mention of Ramon. 'Sounds like some sort of Spanish twit.' Logan thought. But his curiosity got the best of him. "So how long have you and Ramon been together?"  
"We met a little over four years ago, and besides some basic maintenance, we've been inseparable ever since."  
The obvious affection that carried in Max's voice made Logan want to roll his eyes. "Why's *Ramon* mad at you?" Logan asked, spitting the name like it was the plague.   
"Oh, he's pissed because I haven't ridden him in like a month."  
Logan's mouth dropped open. "Excuse me?" 'She doesn't mean…. Oh god.'  
"What?" Max asked, stroking the steering wheel lovingly. "It's not my fault. I was all over the country for a couple of missions. Not my fault."   
Logan took two steadying breaths. There was just something really, really wrong about hearing about her sex life. "So, your boyfriend doesn't mind your work?"  
Max glanced over at him. "I don't have a boyfriend." She said somewhat confused.  
Logan was just as confused. "You don't have a boyfriend? Then who's Ramon?" 'Please don't say something crude…' Logan mentally begged.  
"This is Ramon." Max said gesturing her arm around. "Ramon's my car. Who are you talking about?"  
'Riding…oh thank God…' Logan laughed. "Never mind."  
"What?" Max asked confused, turning in her seat.  
"Trust me, you don't want to know." Logan said still laughing. "Now watch the road before you get us killed."  
  
  
  
  
  



	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Okay, I messed up when I was uploading chapters the other day. I'm uploading a couple now.  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 9:  
  
"Where's Cale?" Zack asked under his breath as they waited for Lydecker to enter the large room where their mission briefings were held.   
Max glanced at the small watch she wore on her wrist. 10:15. She had things to do, people to see, and she didn't have the time to be sitting around waiting for Lydecker to make an appearance. "They have him watching the sixer's do an E & E exercise. Where the hell is Lydecker? I don't have all bloody day." Max snapped, checking her watch again. Still 10:15. Bloody fucking hell.  
"What the hell is your problem?" Zack asked amused.   
"What?" Max asked as she crossed, the immediately uncrossed her legs.   
"You are once again suffering from what appears to be AD/HD." Zack said as Max started to drum her finders against the table in front of her.   
"I don't have AD/HD." Max's foot was tapping harshly against the table leg.  
"Someone forgot to use their Preparation H." Zane said under his breath. Max was about to make a comment involving taking Valtrex to control herpes outbreaks when Lydecker (finally) opened the door and stepped silently into the room.  
The X5s quickly got to their feet, their own form of respect since they rarely saluted. "Be seated." He said distractedly.   
Lydecker himself sat in one of the chairs at the front of the room, which was a rarity because he usually stood, his way of establishing superiority. But today he didn't look in the least superior, he almost looked pathetic, fatigued, and it almost looked like he had aged a matter of years since yesterday.   
The room was so utterly silent that they could hear the sounds of each other's breathing. Something was wrong, something was seriously wrong. "Sir?" Jondie was the first one to build up the courage to speak.   
Lydecker looked up, seeming surprised by the sudden intrusion of sound. "Wha-? Oh, sorry." His voice sounded odd to all of them. Zane and Max glanced at each other subtly out of the corner of their eyes while they sat forward in their chairs. "Sorry I am late, we had a…accident with the PA1s."   
Each of the X5s recognized that this accident had resulted in someone's death. They didn't need to be told that when they could clearly see it in Lydecker's face.   
The silence transcended across the room again, no one wanting to be the first to speak. The X5s didn't even see the PA1s more than a handful of times in passing throughout the base, and never really interacted with them due to the age difference. While youngest X5 was twenty-two, the oldest PA1 was nearly seven. But it didn't matter how little the X5s knew the PA1s, they were still soldiers just like they were, and when a solider died, it affected more than just their direct team.   
It was a long moment before Lydecker seemed to snap back into his surroundings and initiate the start of the mission briefing. "What is the status of the Costello matter? Any progress?"  
"At this point, sir, we are at a stand still until we can break the encryption codes on the files that X5 452 and myself recovered several days ago. X5-353 and myself have been working on the algorithms but they are more sophisticated than we had anticipated."  
"You'll keep me posted?" Lydecker asked easily falling back into the normal routine of a mission briefing.   
"Yes Sir." Zack replied.  
"Ok then, I understand you had some concerns, X5-452."   
"Yes, sir, I do." Max said as she sat forward in her seat. "I don't think it has been properly calculated the risk of having Phillip Costello's godson having access to every detail of our lives. He very well could be in on Costello's crime ring and we just haven't noticed yet. If he finds out we are investigating his godfather, there is a very good chance that Cale will tip Costello, or at the very least derail our investigation. I've been working on this case for well over eight months and we are as close as we ever have been to nailing this bastard. Can we really risk all this work the way we are?" Max finished with a flourish of her hand.   
The room fell into silence again as Lydecker considered this. "We also can't risk the snowball effect that Manticore being exposed without our control would have if we don't let Cale do his article. We are going to keep him out of the loop as possible. Just tell him he doesn't have the clearance whenever he questions what you are doing. Plain out lie if you have too, but Manticore is more important than the mission, so do what you have to do."  
Max nodded her head in reluctant agreement. "Yes sir."  
"Is there anything else that needs to be addressed as far as the Costello case?" When no one spoke up, Lydecker stood to distribute thin black files to the six X5s sitting in the room. "This is just basic information on the rebel crisis in Paris. Early yesterday, the rebel crisis in France reached a new level when the king was taken hostage by the radicals and then they beheaded poor Louis XIX at midnight."  
"As in good French tradition." Zack muttered as he flipped open the file and studied the detailed map of Paris.  
"I'm telling you, soon as they tried to revert to the monarchy, all of Europe was shot straight to hell. You'd think after the absolute monarch failed so many times, they'd learn to stop trying it." Jondie muttered.  
"How are the Conservatuers retaliating?" Max asked as she read the psychological report on the Radical's current leader, and would be dictator of France, Luc Bonaparte, the great times 20 or so grandson of the legendary Napoleon.   
"Three bus bombings since the Radicals took the King's palace, several Radical politicians have mysteriously disappeared. The riots aren't getting that bad, only a couple of cars have been set on fire. The only way that we are sending you in is if the riots get out of control. The US is trying to stay out of this as much as possible, we don't want to take sides in a war that we don't want to get involved in."  
"That's what they said in 1941." Krit said, which was more than he's probably say for the rest of the day.  
No one spoke as they silently read their files. "Nothing to worry about as of now, just so you have the basic info should the occasion arise that they call you in." Lydecker's eyes scanned the room a moment before he stood. "Dismissed."   
The X5's gathered their belongings as the walked out of the room, and they scattered as they walked out the door, each heading to their own area to accomplish whatever busy work they had to do for today.   
And when the room was empty, Lydecker sat in the dim room, alone, wearily contemplating the mistakes in his life. 


	10. Chapter 10

AN: This sets us up for things to come. Lovely, isnt it?  
  
  
Chapter 10:  
Logan sat in the small, dank room, no more than the size of one of the closets in his apartment, scanning the file in front of him. When he'd asked for access to the X5s medical records, he didn't exactly expect the reams and reams of paper he'd gotten on each X5 alone.   
He considered himself a pretty intelligent guy. He sailed through high school like it was a joke; slept through college with a 4.0, but the files in front of his were so technically written that it had given him a one of those blaring headaches that made you want to curl up into a ball and die.   
He did have to give credit to the Manticore executives though. When they'd agreed to the give him access to the base so easily, Logan knew that they planned on doing everything in their powers to make the article bend in their direction. It seemed that apart of that plan was to give him so much paperwork that he's rather stick his head in an oven than hear the words 'genetic enhancements' again.   
He'd slowly but surely gone through every file, sorting them into three piles. One, information that he could use. Two, information that had absolutely no meaning to his cause. And three, information that he hadn't the slightest idea how to decipher into lay terminology. He'd gone through all of the files except for one, that being X5-452, Max's, file.   
Looking at someone's medical records was like reading their diary, and knowing how much Max disliked even being in the same room with him, he knew perfectly well that this wouldn't be going over very well with her, should she ever find out. He had hesitated to open the file at all, but now that there was no avoiding it any longer, he wondered why her file was any different than the others. He hadn't waited a moment before diving into that information, and had no qualms about it afterwards. Then why was Max's file so different?  
The file sat in the empty space in front of him, almost as if it was taunting him. Screw 'to be or not to be'. Should he look at Max's medical and psychological history? That was the real question. Did he really want to see her coldly referred to as 'the subject' and have every incident in her life just as impersonally written down like she wasn't a real person? For whatever reason, reading Zack, Syl, Krit's files, that didn't bother him. He didn't have the slightest idea why the thought of reading Max's did.   
Logan swallowed whatever misgivings he had and pulled the file towards him before he could talk himself out of it. Whatever personal reasons he had to not look at Max's file, as if there were really any anyway, he had to put the professional in front of the personal and get this done with.   
Logan read for several sickening moments before he came to a page in the psychological evaluations that caught this eye.  
  
Subject: Aged 11- Subject 452 is more attached to the family bonds that she and the other prototypes have formed since the shift in training. Now that they are allowed to show emotion, even in the slightest ways, it seems that the subjects they are flourishing much more than they might have if the training had continued on its previous path.   
It was brought to my attention that in the course of a training exercise last week, the subject's team was practicing live explosives. The subject's team failed to complete the guidelines stated by their commanding officer. As punishment for the failure, their CO ordered they run two laps around the perimeter fence. The subject, after asking permission to speak, stated that it was her fault that they had failed the mission, and that only she should be punished for the failure. The subject's CO stated that he didn't care whose fault the mission failure was, he wanted two laps for each member of the ten-person team, he didn't care who they were completed by. Much to the CO's surprise, the subject then proceeded to run all of the laps for her team. Fifteen hours later, X5-452 finished her last lap around the perimeter, where after stating her completion, the subject collapsed and had to be treated for exhaustion and severe dehydration.   
It is in my belief that due to the subject's strong over- protectiveness, she would not make an adequate commanding officer. During times of stress, as in the X5-057 incident, X5-452 has displayed incapability of giving orders, and the family ties that she has created leads her away from rational choices and into impulsive decisions that could endanger the team as a whole. While Col. Lydecker and myself had discussed moving X5-452 into a commanding position, I feel that X5-599 is more capable of carrying out the necessary tasks of a leader. Instead, subject X5-452 is a strong candidate for a second in command position. She is a strong leader among her team, despite her age, the older prototypes look to her for inspiration.'   
  
Logan smiled as he finished the passage. Even knowing her for less than a day, it was so utterly Max that he had to laugh. Then he frowned for a moment. Less than a day. Well, a little more if you counted getting assaulted by her in his godfather's office, but he really didn't. So less than a day since he had found out who Veronica Sprouse really was, but why did it seem like ages longer than that.   
It was shortly after Logan got into the reports on Max's high sodium levels, and as exciting as that was, he pulled off his glasses and laid his head on the table, groaning in frustration. If he was going to get locked into a room with nutrition reports whenever he tried to get any access, then this was really going to be a waste…  
His thoughts trailed off as he heard the door open. Sitting up in his chair, he was quite surprised to see Jondie standing in the doorway. "Bad time?" She asked tapping a nail against the doorframe.  
"Not at all. Save me from these nutrition reports, please dear god." Logan said dramatically as he shoved the file away from him.   
Jondie crossed the room, glancing down at the file. "Max's medical files. As exciting as this is for the nutritionist, it bores the hell out of me, and I'm supposed to be the medic of the group."  
"Yeah well, to be honest, I could care less." Logan said pulling off his glasses to rub his eyes.  
"Well that is nice to know, cause Max'll kick your ass for you, or anyone, seeing this." Jondie said as she subtly slipped the file under a stack of papers, automatic protectiveness of her little sister, an action that Logan didn't miss. "Lydecker sent me out here, said you wanted to do interviews or something similar."  
Logan scratched the back of his head, surprised. He'd casually asked for one on one interviews, barely in passing, and here she was. This kid of corporation was not the kind you trusted. "Right…I didn't know he was sending someone in here this quick."  
"I'm bored, everyone else has something to do, so they sent me to you. Amuse me, please." Jondie said as she dropped into a chair across the table from Logan.  
It took a few moments before Jondie had settled down in the chair across the table from Logan, and another moment for Logan to wade through the piles of files to find a pad of paper and a pen to take notes with. "Where shall we begin?" Jondie asked with a smile, finding the thought of being interviewed by one of the nation's most predominant journalist more than a little exciting.  
"Why don't we start from the very beginning? What is your first memory of your training?"  
"The first time we had live ammunition practice." Jondie smiled briefly, as she remembered being six and having her shoulder dislocated because the recoil of the large machine gun had thrown her small frame back like a rag doll. And she remembered Lydecker's disapproving eyes upon her as the base doctor had twisted her arm back into place.  
Despite the excruciating pain of her injury, she'd calmly joined her fellow soldiers, they hadn't been allowed to call them siblings yet, and she finished riddling with bullets the corpse of the deer that had been hung from a tree five hundred feet in front of her.   
"Is there anything you wish that you could do that you are unable to do because of what…or who you are?" Logan asked.  
"Go to the movies." She said assertively without a moment's hesitation, shaking the disturbing memory out of her head gladly in favor of the wistful thinking.  
Logan looked up from the paper he was taking notes on. "Huh? Go to the movies?"  
"Yeah. As you probably can gather, we all love to watch movies. We do it quite a bit. None of us have ever even stepped foot inside a movie theater before."  
"Why not?" Logan asked confused. How can you never have been to a movie theater before? Even post-pulse when the already ridiculous prices of seven dollars a movie rose to almost twenty, everyone still went.  
"We weren't allowed to leave base unless sent on a mission till I was, let's see, about nineteen. Then after we, and by we I really mean Maxie and Zane, talked Lydecker in giving us a metaphorical day pass, we had to much to see, too much to experience to take three hours of the little bit of time we had to see a movie. Now it is just plain laziness. We are always working, even at home, and when we aren't working we are usually dead tired and cant find the energy to go anywhere but the kitchen and living room."  
"So, obviously you have had the military training. What was the psychological training like?"  
Logan watched as Jondie's green eyes iced over. He didn't know what he said, but she obviously hadn't liked it.  
The images flashed through her head quickly and violently. Duty. Mission. Teamwork. The words filtered through her subconscious no matter how hard she tried to block them. "Different." She said coldly.  
Logan knew from years of interviewing skittish witnesses when to back off a touchy subject. Little did he know that the next thing he said was the worst thing he could have possible brought up.   
"I was reading through one of the files, and a X5 was mentioned…" Logan started flipping through Max's file trying to find the delegation number. "I couldn't find any files on a X5-057."  
Logan could have sworn the temperature of the room had dropped ten degrees.  
When he looked up from the file, Jondie was staring directly at him, but she wasn't really seeing anything, of that he was sure.   
She was cold. That thought mixed with the image of her sister lying dead at her feet, a single clean hole in the center of her forehead, the blood seeping out onto her bare feet. 'Eve? Evie? Come back. Please. Evie?'  
Jondie felt the bile rise to the back of her throat. She ruthlessly shut off her overworked mind, the disturbing images of her lost childhood stopping almost on command. It had taken her a long time to learn how to block those memories out, and she didn't like having them brought up again. "Yeah, you're not going to find much on X5-057." She wasn't a goddamn number, Jondie thought bitterly, but left this unsaid. She was Eva, and she had pretty brown eyes. "You wont find much because she's dead."   
"Oh." Logan would have gladly shoved his foot into his mouth at the moment. "I'm sorry…I…didn't know." Even as the words left his mouth, he knew how pathetic they sounded.   
"Yeah. Well." Despite Jondie's best efforts, one last image escaped and flashed in front of her eyes, exactly that the nightmare it was. Max, being supported by the protective arms of Zane and Krit, her frail body shaking lightly as the aftershocks of her first major seizure left her body. Their eyes met a moment, dark brown meeting turbulent violet, and that second of realization passed between them, and that moment that Jondie had struck out, whatever way should could cope with what she had just saw, the emotions that she didn't understand coursing through her blood. She thought, for that one fleeting moment that their eyes were locked, 'Look what you've done Max.' That day in her life was a day she mourned, not only because of the death of her oldest sister, but because of the way she had hurt her youngest.   
"Listen to me now, and listen to me closely." Jondie said, rising out of her chair to slap her hands down on the table in front of Logan. "You will not, under any circumstances, bring Ev-X5-057 up to anyone else. If you want my corporation, you will promise me that right now. All of us blame ourselves some way or another for the elimination of X5-057, and we've all worked quite hard to move on from what happened that night. Don't you even try and bring it up, or you are going to seriously find out how protective we are, especially Krit, of the ones that we have lost. You think Max can get pissed? You go ahead and mess with this, and you will see how much X5s can fuck you up." Jondie said as she knocked over the table with a single flick of her wrist.  
"Goddamn, Logan." Max's voice rang with what had to be amusement from the doorway. "You can piss off pretty much anyone cant you? Or do you just have a fetish with S&M?"  
Jondie's head snapped around, her eyes carefully curtained. Max was grinning like an idiot, so obviously she hadn't been there too long, because if she'd heard this outsider, especially one that threw her off so much, mention Eva, there might not have been enough left to identify Logan with dental records. "Max. How long have you been standing there?"  
Jondie watched as she narrowed her eyes, the familiar way she straightened when she sensed danger. "I caught something about X5s fucking him up, and it just grabbed my interest." Her eyes shrewdly scanned the room, Logan's stunned face; Jondie's carefully blank one. Something wasn't right. "But if you want a chance to beat on Cale here, Jond, you're going to have to take a number, because a waiting list is quickly forming." Her voice was smooth, only Jondie picking up the underlying question.  
The threats didn't even faze Logan, not because he was used to it by now, but because Jondie's words were still stuck in his head. The elimination of X5-057? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Death was one thing; it could mean accident, mission gone wrong…it could be any number of things. Elimination was something altogether different. It meant that X5-057 was… He couldn't even bare to think it.  
"We just had a little disagreement over how this interview should go." Logan heard Jondie say calmly, relaxing from her attack pose to a more relaxed one. "Did you need something?"  
"Nope, just checking to see what you were up too. Wanted to let you know that I've been sent off to do the obstacle course so the X-8s can watch and learn from the master." Max murmured, still trying to gauge the situation. If Cale had managed to piss Jondie off, it had to be good. Maybe she'd do them all a favor and end his miserable excuse for a career by ripping out his trachea. "I think I'll just step out and leave you too to your business." If Jondie were going to hurt him, she'd probably like to have her privacy in it.   
When the door was firmly shut and Jondie was sure that Max wasn't standing outside of the door eavesdropping, she turned back to the still stunned Logan. "I'll apologize for flipping out on you. I was out of line, but as you can tell, Eva, X5-057, she's a touchy subject, especially for Maxie. Please don't pursue this angle of the story. It will only bring back bad things. For all of us." Jondie said in a quiet voice as she picked the table back up into its original position.   
"Jondie." Logan said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice that had her looking up. "I know what it is like to lose someone you love. I just lost my parents a few months ago." And it still stung to remember the way he'd been so wrapped up in work he'd barely had the chance to talk to his mother in months, meet his father for drinks and argue politics in longer than that. And before he'd had the chance to right the wrong, they were gone. He took a deep, calming breath before he trudged on. "They were murdered; no reason at all really, just some random act of violence. If I had known that your sister had been killed, I wouldn't have even brought it up, not less been as insensitive enough to push the matter. As much as you guys think I am out to hurt you, I'm really not."  
Jondie considered him a moment as she began to straighten files that had been spilled across the floor. She tapped the edges of Zack's medical records together as she considered what she was about to do. Max was going to beat on her for it, but she figured she owed the man. "You know, Max is usually a rather calm and mild mannered with norms." Jondie was pretty sure she heard Logan discreetly snort. "Whenever she really cops an attitude with one, it is usually because they are really throwing her off. I figure the way she freaks out about you, she's just about been knocked on her ass." Jondie flashed a smile that would cut most men off at the knees. Logan wondered why it didn't faze him in the least. "If you want to get anywhere with Maxie, you've got to outsmart her, so find her weakness and play on it. At the moment, it seems her weakness is…" She paused for the simple reason of dramatic effect. "You."  
Logan laughed, genuinely, as Jondie quietly walked out of the room.   
  



	11. Chapter 11

A/N: You'll recognize Justin out of the J&J series. Cat owns 'em, I just borrow him for the occasional sexual favor [me-owww]. I also screwed around with the formatting of my spacing, let me know if this is easier to read.  
  
Chapter 11  
Logan walked quickly down the hallway of the twenty-third floor of the Vincentia Office complex. The Vincentia was a posh office building, one of the few left of its kind in the post-pulse era. More people were concerned with what they were going to eat and where they were going to sleep, and didn't have time to worry about their office looking nice. The top seven floors were occupied with the editors and head writers of The Truth, the high ceilings and thick carpet giving the offices more of a high class penthouse feeling rather than the home of the controversial magazine that it was.   
  
This is how he had spent the last two weeks. While he'd spend every possible minute of his time with the X5s, whether it be on base or at their home, he still had responsibilities that he had to deal with back at his office, ones that he couldn't leave in the hands of one of the other editors. And that is why he spent two hours there last week total, as opposed to the sixty or so hours he might spend on some other week. He figured it was balancing out quite nicely because you really couldn't consider observing the X5s work when many times it was just him sitting around watching them bicker over a basketball game on TV. It was now almost to the point where Max didn't make a rude comment every time he walked into a room.   
  
And he didn't even feel bad for letting the real work fall back on his executive editor, Justin Carter, because Justin, at this point in time, was really dedicated to his work. Or you could say he was too afraid to go home, because, Denise, his psychopathic ex-wife, the 'ex' being a recent addition, only official about a month ago, might have burnt down his house. Justin had been in more than one hostage situation, talked down suicidal politicians off the tops of buildings, had countless guns held to his head, and he was more afraid now of his ex-wife than he was then. And the sad thing was, Logan knew perfectly well he had reason too.   
  
After two weeks of being relatively lazy and in generally casual clothes, being back in a suit and tie was a real pain in the ass. Ties, in Logan's opinion, were something some vindictive woman had thought up to choke the life out of a man so that when they were weak and near death they could grab the end of it and lead him to do whatever her bidding might be. And five minuets after walking in the door to the office, the damn thing was already driving him insane.   
  
When he rounded the corner to his office, Kat was already sitting at her desk outside the office, tapping away efficiently at her computer, and not surprisingly, looked up, startled when Logan walked by. "Mr. Cale! I didn't know you were coming in today."  
  
"Hey, Kat, I'm only going to be in for a few hours. I just need to take care of anything Justin can't handle."  
  
"I have your messages from today here." Kat said as she followed him into his office. "And the rest of the messages from the past couple days on your desk."  
  
"Jesus Christ." Logan muttered as he saw the neatly stacked piles of messages sitting in the center of the desk. The three piles were at least four inches thick. Each.  
  
"Well, I did do my best to split them up. The most important ones are in the pile on the left." Kat said soothingly as Logan rounded the desk. "Everything else Mr. Carter can probably handle on his own."  
  
"That's fine. I'll start wading my way through here. Hold all my calls unless it's an emergency." Kat nodded as she headed out towards the door again. "And can I get a cup of coffee or something?"  
  
"Will do. Anything else?"   
  
"No, that's it." Logan answered with a sigh as he sat down and began to wade through the piles of messages.  
  
An hour and a half and three cups of coffee later, he was still making pointless calls to people who in reality had intelligence than was really healthy when Kat's voice floated out of the intercom. "Mr. Cale, Mr. Carter is here to see--"  
  
She never got to finish her statement because Justin was already pushing open the door and walking in. "Logan, I'm shocked. You've decided to join us in the land of the working for a few hours."  
  
Logan looked up at Justin, studying him a moment before speaking. "Well, I couldn't let you just completely take over. I didn't want to come back to find that you staged a mutiny against me."  
  
"You couldn't have stayed away like three more days could you? I had all the photographers going by your penthouse with flame-throwers, but no, you had to come back. Well, since you still are alive, what's up with this assignment you're insisting on handling yourself? What's the time frame of this?" Justin asked as he sat down in a chair in front of Logan's desk.  
  
"I'm aiming for November or December issue."  
  
"Its almost July! Why are you going to keep it back so long?" Justin asked surprised. When a major story, such as this Manticore super solider one was turning out to be, Logan's usual style was to get it into the next issue as soon as possible, that way the evil anti-Christs that were the press censors tried to find a way to stop the article. But now he was waiting five months.   
  
"Well its going to take me at least three months observation to get all the information I need, then probably at least a month before Manticore is going to take out everything they can, and a couple of weeks after that for me to talk them into putting more stuff in."  
  
Justin's mouth dropped. "Are you telling me you're going to be gone for three months?"  
  
"I doubt that. I am thinking a month tops, and then I can do everything else by phone." Logan said as he leaned back in his chair. "Why, can't handle things without me?" He asked with an arrogant grin.  
  
Justin rolled his eyes. "Actually, now that you are out of the way, my plot to use the Truth to take over the world is coming together quite nicely."  
  
"Hmm. How's life on the home front, might I ask?" Logan asked with a wicked smile. "Missing any vital organs?"  
  
"This morning, I checked my voice mail. I had four messages, all from four different brothers, all four different ways that they want to kill me." Justin said somewhat mystified. "You'd think I was the one who freaked out and started stalking her, instead of the other way around. Now instead of one stalking me, I've got six, if you don't count the parents."  
  
"Doesn't Denise have five brothers?"  
  
"The one isn't all that good with verbal threats. Well, I should say he isn't that good verbally at all. He isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Well, to make a long story short, security is threatening to strike because he showed up here yesterday and it took quite a few of them to get him back out again."  
  
"Your mistake was trying to keep your stuff. When I broke up with Val, I just let her take whatever she wanted from the penthouse. I wasn't even married to her, and she took practically everything but the mattress." Logan said expertly.  
  
"Didn't she leave your clothes?" Justin asked with an ached brow.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"That sucks."  
  
"Well, you're one to talk. At least *I* don't have a stalker."  
  
"Go ahead and joke, but when pieces of me get mailed back to my dad's house…" Justin shivered. "Please, tell my family I love them and I'm sorry."  
  
"Well, your fault your married the crack job." Logan said without the slightest trace of pity.  
  
"I need to get protections. Think you can hook me up with one of the killing machines you are in the current company with?" Justin asked hopefully, the expression on his face similar to that of a little boy on Christmas.  
  
Logan laughed distractedly as he read a memo from the advertising department. "They have been trained from birth to be the superior soldier. Even they can't save you from that."  
  
"You don't feel my pain at all do you? You are just having a great time watching me as my life gets threatened? Or is this all payback for when you and Val…parted ways?"  
  
Logan merely grinned. "You have everything handled here?" The question wasn't really necessary, just a formality.  
  
"I've got like eight numbers to reach you at if I don't." Justin rose from his chair and headed towards the door. "I know I was bitching at you to take a vacation a couple of months ago, and I know you to know that this completely doesn't count."  
  
"What the hell do you mean it doesn't count?" Logan snapped, looking up from stuffing files in his briefcase. He was taking almost two months off of regular work, and then the creepy little bastards he called friends still wouldn't leave him alone.   
  
"A vacation is white sandy beaches in the Carriabean. You're hanging out at a covert military watching a bunch of training missions…"Justin threw a hand into the air. "You're sick and twisted if you think that's fun."  
  
How was Logan supposed to explain to Justin that out of all the stories he'd written, all the people he'd met, the X5s were certainly the ones he'd pick to spend his time with. Before Logan could even try and explain this to his friend, Justin walked out of the room, quickly shutting the door behind him.   
  
Logan swallowed the last inch of coffee in his mug before he closed his briefcase and headed out. Now that he was sure that things were as well settled as they could be during his absence, he could make it to Manticore's base in about an hour and piss off Max with clear conscience.   
  
  



	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:  
  
Rubber squeaked against pavement as Zane pushed the basketball against the blacktopped surface. "Come on, Maxie," He said with a feral grin.  
  
"You're the self proclaimed goddess of basketball!"   
  
"F**k you." Max said breathlessly as she reached up with the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat that was trickling down the side of her face.  
  
"Will you stop standing there and play? It's hot as hell and I'd like to get this over with."  
  
"Poor Maxie. She gets b**chy when it's hot outside." He replied condescendingly. Before Max could comment, Zane had shot sideways, bouncing the ball low to the ground as Max pivoted on her foot and slid back, keeping herself between the net and the basket.  
  
Logan stepped out of his nicely air-conditioned car into the blinding heat wave that had taken the west coast just as Zane drove forward and sunk an easy jump-shot, to which Max cursed for almost a minuet straight. Since Logan had been keeping track, he knew this was now officially the new record for how many time she could say 'goat f*cker' in one sentence.  
  
"That's 21-28. Two more points and I've got game." Zane said arrogantly.   
  
"I'm going to laugh when I win." Max said as she put her hands on her knees to catch her breath.  
  
Zane watched Max as she stretched her arms over head. "You okay?" He asked offhandedly, keeping his voice light enough that only she could hear. Max was extremely proud, and would barely admit something was wrong to one of the X5s, not less what Logan was standing on the edge of the court, observing the last of the game. But the way she was out of breath after a simple game of basketball, and she was sweating like they had just ran cross country, something had to be up.  
  
"I'm fine, I guess I'm just off today." Max said easily, ignoring the dull aching headache that was quickly progressing into a sharp piercing migraine.  
  
"You sure?" Zane passed Max the ball and she dribbled left handed as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her arm.  
  
"Yeah." Max snapped defensively. "Now lets go. Check." She bounce passed the ball to Zane, who fluidly bounced it back. Max mustered the little bit of energy she seemed to have that day and shot forward, spinning and rolling off of Zane and dribbled towards the basket. Just as she was jumping up for the easy lay up, Zane jumped in front of her, knocking the ball down and throwing off her balance. She stumbled as she hit the ground, off balance, she tripped, falling forward, and breaking her fall with her hands.  
  
"Nice shot." Logan commented as Zane cleared to ball and sunk a three pointer with a swish of the net.  
  
Zane grinned, doing his best to hide the concern from his eyes. Max was supposed to have the best balance of them all, but there she was, rolling onto her back as she lay on the ground.  
  
"Good game, Maxie." He said as he offered a hand to pull her up.  
  
When Max was on her feet again, she brushed the loose gravel off the front of her shirt and smiled. "You're lucky I have a killer headache, or else this game would have been all about me."  
  
"You have a headache?" Zane asked. "You sure it wasn't just my mad skill?"  
  
Max snorted as she pushed Zane back playfully. "Yeah right."  
  
The peal of ringing from her bag had them both looking up. Max jogged across the court, passing by Logan silently as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Zane followed, stretching his arms overhead as he walked up to Logan. "Hallo guter Sir. Wie sind Sie heute nachmittag?" Zane asked.  
  
"Sorry, German's not my thing." Logan said as he loosened his tie. The sweltering heat was almost suffocating, the humidity so thick you could practically cut it. "Hey, is it just me, or does Max look pale?"  
  
Zane stared at him a moment before turning to walk away. "Yeah, Something's up." He said evasively.  
  
Max turned back to them, her face now bright as she talked into the small blue phone, her voice animated with obvious pleasure. "Yeah…Zane and I just got done playing a game of basketball... 31-21, his game… hold up." She held the phone away from her ear for a moment. "Tinga wants to know if they are holding the ice capades in hell now."  
  
"Its Tinga?" Zane's face lit up as walked over to where Max stood. "Let me talk to her a sec."  
  
Max handed the phone to Zane and after picking up the water bottle, crossed back to where Logan stood.  
  
"Que, você que tenta ao dado do curso de calor? Porque você andaria ao redor em um terno e amarraria quando seus quase cem graus para fora aqui."  
  
"Why do you people insist on not speaking English? I don't have a clue what you said, but more than likely it was insulting, so I'll just do the smart thing and agree with you."  
  
Max grinned as she gulped from the water. "You know me oh so well."  
  
"Question for you."  
  
"Am I going to see in printed in big bold words in a magazine sometime?" Max asked innocently.  
  
"Off the record."  
  
"Go ahead than."  
  
"Do you guys ever do anything but hang around base and mess around? I've watched countless games of basketball, watched you guys terrorize each other, watched as you messed around with your car. Millions of dollars of technology and this is what you do?"  
  
Logan knew he hadn't offended her when she laughed. "We are on call to save the world 24/7. I think that gives us the right to terrorize each other when we feel the need."  
  
To there right, Zane was idly walked in slow circles as he talked on the phone, a habit that only Max recognized. Zane was always moving, whether it be simply tapping his foot or running around in circles, but he simply put, was never still. "Is that your other sister?"  
  
"Yeah, Tinga." Max said quietly. "She got deployed to Korea, you know about war they have going with India. Well, basically, she was sent there because it is too uneasy of a situation for any diplomat to go, and Tinga is the only one with the slightest knowledge of politics, so she's there on behalf of President Murray."  
  
"You miss her." Logan said more as a statement rather than a question.  
  
"Yeah." Max took another sip of water. "She was deployed while I was."  
  
She caught herself before she said too much. "I was on a mission." Max walked away, screwing the top back onto her water bottle and dropped it on the ground.  
  
She grabbed the basketball from where it had rolled at about half court. She wiped her face off on the edge of her gray tee shirt as she walked close to the basket and made a simple jump shot.  
  
She felt Logan's eyes on her as she grabbed the rebound on its first bounce and shot again. Max would have had time to really comprehend that Logan was either checking her out or she had something stuck to her a**, but when spots danced in front of her eyes, and her mind clouded, she didn't have time to think of much of anything. 'No, not here. God no, not now.' She thought desperately as she dropped the ball. Logan watched as Max dribbled the ball, and then suddenly stopped, the ball hitting her foot and rolling away. She brought her hands up to her head, pressing on the sides of her head as she tightly closed her eyes.  
  
Zane's head whipped around when Max cried out in pain. "Ting…I've got to go." He dropped the phone on the ground as Logan quickly walked to Max.  
  
"Maxie! What's up?" He asked apprehensively.  
  
Max opened her eyes, blinking rapidly at the light that hurt her eyes.  
  
"I…my vision got all blurry for a second, and my head's killing me."  
  
"Why don't you sit down?" Logan said soothingly as he took her arm and started leading her off the court. The way her eyes were clouded over with pain scared the hell out of him.  
  
Max started to walk off court, but when her head shook forward enough to throw her hair in her face, she yelped. "Zane." was all she managed before she fell backwards, seizing violently.  
  
"Fuck." Zane said, panicking as Logan caught her seconds before she hit the ground. He sprinted towards her bag and grabbed it even as he was turning to run back towards the shaking and unconscious Max.  
  
He dumped the bag onto the ground inches from Max head, loose change and lip-glosses, the various other items she carried with her spilling out onto the sun-baked blacktop. He shoved everything aside as he grabbed the small black case and ripped it open.  
  
"What the hell is going on." Logan trailed of as Zane pulled out a small hypodermic needle and slid it into Max's arm.  
  
"We all have a neurological condition that causes us to have seizures."  
  
Zane spoke in a deadly calm voice as he depressed the needle. The clear yellow liquid emptied into Max's bloodstream in a matter of seconds. "I don't know why I didn't see the warning signs that she was going to have one. The headaches, she's been tripping over he own feet all day…damn it."  
  
Zane swore as Max stilled.  
  
Logan watched in horror as Max went from violent shaking to deadly still almost in the blink of an eye. "Shouldn't you take her to the base infirmary or something?"  
  
Zane's dark brown eyes shot up. "They don't know about the seizures. If they knew we had them, then we would either be taken off of active duty or we would be killed. Don't you even think of?" Zane's stopped abruptly as his eyes darted towards the door.   
  
"F**k. Lydecker's coming."  
  
"What? How do you know that?" Logan asked startled as Zane effortlessly picked up Max and carried her off and laid her down behind a wall that couldn't be seen from the courts. Zane stared at Logan icily as he followed. "Stay with her. Don't make a sound and stay our of sight."  
  
Zane ran quickly back to the basketball court and was picking up the ball was Lydecker walked out the door. "Zane." He called.  
  
"Yes sir." Zane kept his face carefully blank.  
  
"Just wanted to remind you that you have flight simulation in about a half hour."  
  
"Yes sir." Zane shot from the foul line and watched the basket bounce on the rim and hit the ground.  
  
"Have you seen Max around?" He asked.  
  
Logan stared at Max, her pale sweaty face, her body so eerily still that he couldn't help himself from checking her pulse. He pushed her hair back off her damp face and pressed his fingers against her throat, relieved when he felt the steady beat under his fingers. Max moaned lightly as her head rolled to the side.  
  
"No sir, I think she might have went to work with Zack on breaking the encryption codes." Zane ad libbed, praying for time.  
  
"No, I was just there. He said she was with you." Lydecker said.  
  
Max's eyes fluttered open to see Logan's face looming above hers.   
  
"Shit." She muttered as she fought the sleep that threatened to over take her. "Help me up." She said, her voice weak.  
  
"You're not going anywhere." Logan whispered, pushing Max back down as she tried to sit up. "Lydecker is right around the corner with Zane."  
  
Max swore again. "Please help me up. Zane's not going to get busted because I screwed up."  
  
"How is a neurological condition your fault?" Logan asked even as he supported her neck while she sat up.  
  
"I ignored the warning signs. I didn't take the pills when I started losing my balance, so this is my fault."  
  
"I don't know where she--" Zane was cut off by a sound behind him. He whirled around to see Max leaning against the side of the wall, Logan standing beside her. To Zane, Max looked weak, like she was getting ready to collapse at any second. To Lydecker, she just looked like she was being cocky and fascias, as usual.  
  
"Sorry, I was back here showing Logan how we can run up walls." Her voice sounded close to normal as possible, if a little quiet, and her eyes were mostly open, if a little droopy. Zane was proud, considering the medication that he'd injected her with usually had most of them out of it for at least twenty-four hours.  
  
They all talked a moment, the epitome of normalcy, but Zane watched as Max leaned more and more against the wall. If Lydecker didn't get out of here soon, she was probably going to pass out from the effort of staying upright.  
  
The second Lydecker walked into the building, Max collapsed to the ground in a heap of twisted limbs.  
  
"Hell." Zane jogged over to where Logan crouched over Max's body. "I'd hate to drag you into this mess, but I really don't have any choice."  
  
Logan looked up at Zane unwaveringly. "What do you need me to do?"  
  
"I don't have time to get her home, and Lydecker will know that I'm gone since I have flight simulator in like twenty minuets. Can you drive her home, get her into bed, and let her sleep this off."  
  
"Yeah." Logan said. "Let's just get her into my car and I'll get her there."  
  
Max was settled into the passenger seat, at Zane's command for when base security watched them drive by, Max asleep in the front seat would look a lot less suspicious that Max asleep in the back, she hadn't stirred at all.  
  
"Thank you, for covering her a** on this one." Zane said sincerely. "We owe you."  
  
Logan started the car and drove off without a word, one eye on the road and one eye on Max as he drove towards her house.  



	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:   
The pound of feet pounded against stairs had Logan's head whipping up from the carpet he'd been fixating on for the last ten minuets. Zack grabbed the doorjamb as he flew into the room, Syl close on his heels. Wordlessly, all eyes in the room locked onto Logan's weary gaze, and then panned the room to land on Max's bed. Max was a barely recognizable lump under the bright purple quilt and piles of equally bright pillows.   
  
Zack cursed, quick and viciously, under his breath. "What the hell happened?" He kept his voice low in respect of Max's sleeping state, though a couple dozen of uniformed marines could bust into the room through the window and take out the opposite wall with some a couple of M80s and she probably wouldn't have known it.   
  
Though Logan's voice was cold, icy cold, with deceptive calm, his eyes were a storming blue that Syl, as a trained observer, felt gave away his every emotion. "I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me that." The memory of having to practically carry Max in the house would probably be forever burnt in his mind.   
  
No one said another word as Zack quickly crossed the room, stepping over piles of unfolded clothes and piles of dirty dishes. When he reached the edge of the bed, he roughly pulled back the edge of the blanket till Max's head was exposed. "Max? Can you wake up for a second?" Zack spoke softly and soothingly. The only acknowledgment was Max rolling over and pulling the blanket back over her head with a short, low moan.   
  
Zack swore again, turning away from the bed while he roughly dragged his hand through his hair, kicking stuff out of the way as he walked over to stand in front of the window that looked over the backyard. Sun glinted off the surface of the small lake across the yard. He had options, of course, but very few of them. And now that Cale was involved, these options were quickly diminishing. He was going to beat the sh** out of Zane for telling him, soon as he got the situation under control. It was much easier to keep Lydecker from finding out about Tinga or Krit's seizures, but when your second in command was down with them, it became more difficult. "Syl, your unofficially SIC until Max is back."   
  
Syl nodded, accepting the temporary promotion from her normal position of third in command with a sinking feeling in her stomach. "This is her first seizure in almost a year," she said.   
  
"She was lucky last time." Zack said turning his face away from the window for the slightest moment. "She was in Berlin on assignment and she was able to just hide out till it passed, since she didn't have to check in for six or seven days."   
  
"True. This was a little to close. Zane said that if…" She trailed off as they both looked at Logan, who was still staring at them icily. His eyes narrowed into icy blue slits.   
  
Zack audibly sighed, his fingers tapping on the windowsill, whether it be out of impatience or nervousness could not be determined. "What's it going to take to keep this little tid-bit of information out of print?" He honestly hadn't meant to sound so, well, ungrateful, but the words were out before he could think about it.   
  
Logan met Zack's eyes unwaveringly. "An explanation on why this is a big secret might make me conveniently forget about everything that happened today." He said simply.   
  
Zack didn't bother beating around the bush. He spoke low, his voice carrying all kinds of undercurrents of violence. "You remember Eva, right?" At Logan's surprised facial expression, Zack sneered. "I know you went through our psych files, and Eva's all over them. Well, Max had her first major seizure when she was nine; they were going to kill her just like they did Jack and Tia. Eva tried to protect Max, she took a bullet between the eyes for her effort." If it was possible, Logan wasn't quite sure, but Zack's voice froze over to a new degree of coldness. "I wasn't about to lose another one of my brother's or sisters, so it was that point where I ordered them all to hide the seizures at all cost. If they found out that we still suffered from them, it doesn't matter how old we are, they'll still do what they do to all the Manticore mistakes." Logan remained silent as Zack stalked out of the room as quickly as he'd entered moments before.   
  
Syl closed her eyes briefly while she leaned back against the wall. The blonde of her hair contrasted vividly against the sky blue that Max had painted it on impulse a couple of months ago. The memory of being sixteen and hiding in a bathroom stall while she silently tremored popped into her head like it had happened yesterday, rather than the seven years ago when she had her last seizure. It scared the hell out of her even to think of her own seizures, so it was easy to see Logan, who didn't even know about them in the first place, didn't know what the hell to think seeing Max have one first hand.   
  
"They're caused when we lack seratonin." Syl said wearily. "When the geneticist screwed around with our genetic code, they messed with one chromosome. Now we compensate the lack with tryptophan."   
  
Logan vaguely remembered seeing Zane pop a handful of pills in his mouth. "Tryptophan, that's the amino acid found in milk and turkey, right? They used to sell that as a homeopathic treatment for neurological conditions…" Logan nodded. "I guess that makes sense."   
  
Impressed, Syl cocked her head. "We take that on a daily basis, but still once or twice a year, we'll get hit with a really bad seizure, like you saw today. They are severe enough that we have to take an injection of something called tryptoephire; it not only suppresses the seizure with a high concentrated dose of tryptophan, it has a small dosage of epinephrine to keep us from going to a coma, basically."   
  
"That explains the sleeping." Logan said halfway to himself.   
  
Syl nodded. "You know how milk makes you tired? Times that by about twenty with this stuff. Max is going to be out for a good two or three days at least."   
  
Logan pondered this a moment. "Do all of you have seizures?"   
  
"I don't, or at least, I haven't had one for a long time. Zack has very few, and they are very mild anyway. Krit and Tinga's are more severe, but Max's are more often, if slightly milder." It was hard for Logan to imagine anyone having a worse seizure than what he has seen that afternoon.   
  
He had tons more questions, and he fully intended to have each and everyone answered, but the shrill of the phone on Max's desk made them both jump. Syl walked over to the desk warily, grabbing the phone as she checked the caller ID. Logan's eyes widened at the stream of profanity that came from her mouth.   
  
"Zack!" She yelled, "Its Lydecker. I think he knows something's up."   
  
The phone rang for a third time just as Zack ran back into the room. Before Syl even realized what he was doing, Logan grabbed the cordless phone on the desk behind him and stabbed it on with his index finger. Any protest Syl or Zack might have made was cut off with the flick of his wrist. "Hello?" He said calmly, sounding ten times more confident than he really felt.   
  
"Where the hell is Zack and Max? Is Syl there too?" Lydecker's annoyance was clear. "And why the hell are you answering their phone?"   
  
"Max is here." It was obvious, even without the move of a single muscle that Zack and Syl were now in defensive stances, ready to pounce in a millisecond, should Logan screw this up. He'd better make it good then. "But I don't have the slightest idea where Syl and Zack are. Last I saw they were camped out somewhere quiet over your way working on computers. As for the phone, Max is packing and she asked me to answer it for her."   
  
Lydecker paused a moment. "Packing? What for?" His voice was stone cold with suspicion.   
  
"Well, we were coming back to base to get this cleared by you, but I think you saved us the trip." Logan began pacing back and forth across the room, scratching the back of his head with one hand as he pulled a story out of the top of his head. "I am having trouble convincing the shareholders of what I am trying to do with this article, so I asked Max to come with me to talk to them and demonstrate some things that I can't explain to them without her help."   
  
"And she agreed to this?" The way Max had referred to Cale as 'the fucking reporter', it was hard to believe that she would do a favor for him. "Are you blackmailing her or something?"   
  
Logan let out a forced clip of laughter. "No, I just told her she could eat where ever she wanted when ever she wanted."   
  
Syl smiled briefly. He was good. Very good.   
  
"I wanted to have one of the commanding officers," Logan continued, "but I figured that you rather have your first in command close to base, so I thought you'd be more apt to letting Max go for a week rather than Zack."   
  
"A week? It's going to take that long?"   
  
"It could be before that." Depending on when the hell Max decides to wake up. "I am really not sure at this point."   
  
When Logan hung up the phone they all let out a breath they hadn't known they'd been holding. His voice was that eerie calm again. "I just bought her a week to get better. If she isn't up and back to normal by then, I think she's in the wrong line of work."   
  
Logan really wasn't in the mood to suffer through another bumbling gratitude speech, threat, or anything else for that matter from an X5 today, so he sat back down warily. "I think you guys better get back to base before they realize your gone." Syl nodded, understanding impeccably. "I'll be in the car." She said in a low voice before stepping out of the room.   
  
"You staying here?" Zack asked, almost as if it were a challenge for him to say 'no.'   
  
"I'm not going anywhere." Logan said evenly.   
  
Zack dropped the bottle of pills he'd carried in the room with him on the dresser. "If Max wakes up, she might or she might not, I have no idea, can you try and shove some of those down her throat, and some food if you can. It'll help her get over the tryptoephire quicker."   
  
"Will do." Logan muttered as he leaned back in his chair, idly wondering if he'd just committed his first felony.   
  
  
  
AN: Okay, this is the official end of the expositionary bullsh**. May the shipper goodness begin.   
  
Oh, also, I've been forgetting to thank my wonderful beta's; Cat, Anna, and Karen, for helping me so much and god knows I need a lot of it. I also want to thank everone for all the feedback I've been getting. I've replied to as many as I felt needed one, like if you ask a question or something, so if you do have questions, go ahead a voice them and I'll be sure to write you back. Thanks again!  



	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:   
  
'They're going to come now and get me just like they did to Jack. She knew what was going to happen to the others if they tried to help. They would be punished and she was going to go to the bad place anyways. The men in white coats were coming. They're coming, she thought. The ones that cut you up. They're here to come and take me and they'll cut me up and feed me to the 'nomilies just like Jack. I watch as Eva falls to the floor and the sound of a gunshot echoes through my head like an endless scream.'  
  
Max shot up in bed, gasping for air. The sheet was tangled around her, clinging to her sweat-dampened skin, but all the while Max was shivering. If she let herself, she could still remember exactly how they all looked at Zack that night so long ago, waiting for what he wanted us to do. For some reason, they had all expected him to order them to leave, to get out of the intolerable hell that had taken their sister. Instead, he turned, and they marched back to their barracks. The sounds of Eva's body being drug away fresh in their minds for weeks afterwards. She never knew why the men in white hadn't come for her. Max clearly remembered lying in bed night after night, waiting for them to take her away. It was a long time before she could close her eyes without worrying about whether or not she'd wake up there in the morning.   
  
Max sighed, flopping back onto the pillows wearily. With a sidelong glance she realized that it was close to three AM. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was when her body betrayed her and gave into those little screw up the scientist made when they made the genetic cocktail that was her. Sleeping was one thing she rarely gave into, and only when she chose to at that. So when she woke up at three in the morning on some unknown day, disoriented and confused, she was not pleased to say the least. She then realized that she had no idea how she'd gotten into the clothes she'd been asleep in, since when she had the seizure she'd been playing basketball in track pants and a tank top, not the flannel boxers and tee shirt she was in now. She rolled her head to the side, stretching her arms over her head; she was even less pleased when she saw Logan asleep in a chair next to her desk. 'That bastard!' She thought as she quickly rolled from her bed. 'That creepy son of a bitch!'  
  
Zack, Syl, and Krit were all asleep, each in their respective beds. Jhondie was in a chat room taunting teenage boys who were never going to get any one screen while she taught herself Navajo on another. Occasionally she'd pick up the crossbow that she'd been toying with all night, lean out the window, and take a few shots at Krit's car. Just because she could. Zane, meanwhile, was taking names and kicking ass at an online computer game. Of course, if the other X5s knew that he was playing Sim City 7000, they'd probably tie a weight to his leg and drop his dead body in the lake.   
  
They all jumped about six feet into the air when Max's scream ripped through the silence. "Cock sucking son of a bitch!"  
  
Jhondie flew out of her chair, grabbing the crossbow that she just cleaned and laid on her desk. Zack, armed with a simple nine millimeter, shoved her out of the way as he kicked open the door. Zane and Syl arrive at Max's doorway a spit second later, Zane with a tricked out handgun, complete with laser sights and pinpoint precision accuracy. Syl's weapon of choice was a homemade pipe bomb.   
  
Logan was still half asleep when he looked up to see Max standing in front of him. He was still disoriented enough to simply be pleased that Max was awake. Then he looked up to see two guns and a cross bow, all aimed at his head. He wasn't even mentioning Syl with her bomb. "Wha-" He started before everyone started talking at once.   
  
"What the hell is going on?" Zack finally got out over the voices. Logan decided it would be best for his personal health at this point to keep quiet, since Jhondie still hadn't put down her crossbow.   
  
"*He* is in my room!" Max hissed as if he'd run over her cat or killed her fish.   
  
There was a bunch of muttered profanity while everyone lowered their weapons. "I'm going back to my chat room." Jhondie muttered as she turned on her heel and walked out of the doorway.   
  
Max eyed the small cylinder in Syl's hand warily. "Mind not using that?"   
  
Syl glanced around the room, which the adjective 'trashed' would be quite applicable. "It's not like anyone would notice. I'm going to bed. Please keep your vocal cords under control, some of us do sleep." Syl might have cared that Max had just woken up, but it was three AM. She really didn't find it necessary at the moment.   
  
Just then, Krit popped into the doorway, a fully loaded AK47 in hand. As usual, he was five minuets late. "Whoa there, cha-chi." Max muttered. "Someone's a little excessive today. What are you going to do with that? Protect the woman folk? "  
  
Zack glanced at Krit's machine gun with a half smile. "Some of us aren't insecure in our masculinity." He said in a sugary sweet voice as he gestured down to his much smaller gun.   
  
Krit scowled before walking out, the sound of his slamming door echoing throughout the house, along with Syl's "Shut the fuck up, Krit!" It was a well-known fact that Syl gets bitchy when she gets woken up before she was damn well ready.   
  
Now that nothing deadly was pointed at him, Logan finally spoke. "I'm sorry if I startled you--" Max cut him off with a simple motion of her hand.  
  
"*I* don't get startled. Your stuff is on my desk." She said pointing to the laptop and files that were sitting on top of the neatly polished cheery wood. "No one touches my desk."  
  
Zane glared at Max. "Your telling me you freaked out and woke up the whole damn house because his stuff is on your desk? Of course he's going to put it on your desk, it's the only place in the room you keep clean!"   
  
"So, what the hell is he doing here in the first place?" Max shot back.   
  
"After the way he saved your ass? He can sit on, sleep in, or own anything he damn well pleases as far as I'm concerned. And instead of freaking out on him, like the psycho bitch you are, why don't you drop the dramatics for five minuets and thank the guy for helping you keep your ass out of trouble. Twice." Zack ranted, thoroughly pissed, before walking out.   
  
Zane merely smirked. The way he figured it, this wasn't the time to be bringing up the thing Logan obviously had for her, seeing as he'd barely left Max's room in the three day's since she had the seizure. "Ditto." And then he was gone.  
  
Max glared at the now empty doorway for another moment before turning back to Logan, who was still sitting flabbergasted in his chair. This had definitely turned out to be an interesting evening for him. People holding guns at him one second, standing up for him the next. Lovely people, these were.  
  
Max crossed her arms impatiently. "Well, you're going to have to give me the 411 on what happened while I was out so I can decide if I am going to chop you up into little pieces or not." Logan winced. She certainly knew how to create inspiration in a person.   
  
"You had a seizure two days ago," Logan glanced at the clock. "Make that three. What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
Max searched her mind, trying to differentiate the reality and the nightmares that had been plaguing her throughout her three-day nap. "I…" She shook her head confused. "Playing basketball, I think?"  
  
"That's right." Logan quickly explained to her what had happened while she'd been out.   
  
Max dropped the defensive stance she'd been standing in since she'd seen Logan in her room. She figured after spending a good two weeks being around Logan, no matter how unwilling that might be, she had his personality pegged. He made a living helping people, or more accurately, he didn't make a living off of it, he just lived to do it. But he was very quiet, almost modest about what he had accomplished. Some people might be inclined to brag about the lies he had saved, the people he had met, and the laws he had changed. So the less he said about something, the more important it was. He barely skimmed over the parts he'd been involved in; Zack hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said Logan had saved her ass. 'Well, hell.' She though as she walked over and flipped on the light. This meant she was probably going to have to be nice to him and she didn't like the idea of it at all.   
  
Logan blinked, started by the sudden onslaught of light to the dark he'd become accustom to. Of course, that was nothing compared to the surprise of at what Max said. "What?" He asked. "Can you repeat that, I don't think I heard you right,"  
  
Max narrowed her eyes. She generally didn't hit people; her brother's the exception, unless there was no way around it. She really wanted to hit Logan. "…Thank…you." She hissed through gritted teeth.   
  
Logan smiled, one quick flash of teeth. Max was sure that the little flutter in her stomach was a direct result of being shot up with speed and sleeping for three days. It had nothing to do with how good he looked when he smiled. "I can say that is one thing I never though I'd hear out of your mouth."  
  
Max ground her teeth together. Being nice was something new and unfamiliar to her. She didn't like it. "You helped me. I thanked you. Normal human behavior, or at least I was taught so in Public Social Interactions class when I was twelve. Now that I am done with that, what kind of time frame did you buy me?"   
  
"I said a five days to a week." Logan said.  
  
"Then I'll go back on the fifth day, it'll keep him from getting suspicious." Max said almost to her self.   
  
"You'll probably slap me for asking, but I'll take the risk. How are you feeling?" He asked in a light tone, but Max knew he was serious. The seizures were scary, and she knew it, so Max figured he had a right to ask.   
  
"My heads killing me and I'll probably be tripping over my own feet for a couple of days."   
  
"That's got to be new for you."  
  
"I guess I missed my ten thousand mile tune up." Max sighed as she rolled her neck in a slow circle, stretching her neglected muscles. "But right now I'm more concerned about taking a shower and getting something to eat, because honestly, I'm starving."   
  
"How about this. You go take a shower while I make something to eat." Logan offered.  
  
"You cook?" Max asked, not even bothering to hide the surprise.  
  
Logan smiled confidently. If she only knew. "Yeah, I cook."  
  
Max eyed him warily and wondered if he was going to try and get even with her for having Jhondie point a crossbow at him. Then she wondered if they had any rat poison in the house. If they did, she hoped he didn't know where it was. "You don't mind? Its three AM, and generally the norms have issues with being woken up at this hour."  
  
"I've had lots of long nights where I wasn't eating dinner till three AM, so this is nothing new."  
  
"Well, I'm not going to turn down the offer of prepared food, since the best I could hope for otherwise would be week old Chinese leftovers." Max said morosely. "Help yourself to whatever's in the kitchen." She continued with a wicked grin. "In fact, I insist, make me something good." Max practically skipped to her closet to pull out clothes, giddy at the thought of real food. She was so pleased that on the way to the bathroom, clothes thrown over one arm, she hit Syl's door with an open hand, and had the pleasure of hearing her screech "BITCH!!"   
  
Logan was putting the finishing touches on the French toast he'd been making when Max finally came into the kitchen. She glanced down at the plate he had sat down on the counter with obvious disdain. "Logan, I hate to deflate your manly ego, but when you said you could cook, I was hoping that meant beyond my meager skills. Anyone with a living brain cell can make French toast."   
  
Logan simply grinned cockily. "Eat." He said, as he sliced off a corner of the light golden bread that he'd just poured syrup on. He held the fork up in front of her mouth. "Then you can grovel."   
  
Max rolled her eyes as she leaned forward and plucked the toast off the end of the fork that was still in Logan's hand. Twenty-one years of intense military training kept her face carefully blank as she chewed and swallowed. "Logan." She said, leaning forward slightly. "Give me the plate or risk injury."  
  
"So you like it?" Logan gloated.  
  
"Quit stalling, give me the plate." Max demanded again, and then simply brushed past Logan to take the plate off the counter herself. She cut off another chunk and shoveled it into her mouth as she carried it over to a barstool and sat down. "This is good." She said, her words slurred by her full mouth. "I haven't had any this good since Ben moved out. What'd you put in this?"  
  
"Cale family secret. My father, who was taught by his father, and so forth, taught me. Ben?" Logan questioned as he dropped the dirty dishes into the sink.   
  
"My brother, one of the X5s. Left about two years ago." Max supplied, too busy gorging herself on French toast to realize that this was the first time she'd willingly talked to Logan about any member of her family unguardedly.   
  
"He just left?" Logan asked as he sat down on another bar stool next to Max. He watched her fork pause on the plate for the slightest second, and could almost see her considering something.  
  
"Ben…well, lets just say that after a mission went sideways, he didn't take it well and basically had a nervous breakdown. Lydecker took pity on him and gave him the option to take an extended vacation and come back when he had gotten over what happened in Norway. He simply never came back, and we haven't heard from him since he left."  
  
Because he felt it warranted, Logan reached over and laid his hand on Max's arm and instantly saw her back tense. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up anything that was painful to you." He spoke with such sincerity that Max closed her eyes for a second. As much as she hated to admit it, those three days that she, Ben, and Caryn had been in Norway had changed everything for her. It still hurt.   
  
Logan watched her; concerned that he'd said something wrong. Her damp hair was falling in loose curls around her face, so from the side it was hard to read her facial expression, not that there would be one there unless she wanted it to be. "You're really making it hard for me to hate you." Max said. She turned her head slightly and flashed him a grin before taking another bite. "Or maybe it's just the French toast talking."  
  
It was then they both looked down and realized that Logan still hadn't moved his hand. Soon after that they realized that neither of them cared. 


	15. Chapter 15

I meant to post this weeks ago, before I went on vacation, but ff.net went down. I have up to Chap 17 writen, but we'll see what kind of response I get to what I post. Hope you enjoy.  
  
  
  
Chapter 15:  
  
"God, I'm bored!" Max moaned for at least the fifteenth time in a half hour. Logan's finger's fumbled on the keys of his laptop. He didn't have the slightest idea of what he was still doing here. Max hadn't shown a single sign of any after effects of her seizure, she was back to her normal bitchy self. He should be back at his quiet office, working on next months issue, with a light Chopin Suite in the background.   
  
Instead, he was sitting in the floor in Max's living room, his laptop set up on a messy coffee table, a trashy talk show about transvestite love triangles serving as his background noise. The TV was so blaringly loud that anyone in the house could hear it, even if they didn't have enhanced hearing to do so. Now, unless Max decided to stray from tradition, she was going to go get food, and then come bug him about what he was working on.   
  
"I'm going to go get something to eat." Max said as she pushed herself off the floor she had been stretched across. "You want anything?" She offered as she passed him.  
  
"That's quite all right." He answered as he deleted the last line that he'd written. He was going to blame his complete writer's block on the unstructured environment, but he knew deep down that he could have been in solitary confinement and he still wouldn't feel like writing this ridiculous piece. He could hand it off to one of the junior reporters that were just begging for a break, but in reality what else did he have to do? With a small smile that was meant only for him self, he saved the work on a disk and opened up an Internet search engine.   
  
"What'ya doing?" He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and prayed that she was less predictable than this when she was on a mission of international security. Max sat down on the couch, a bowl of favored pretzels in hand, and leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen. Logan tried another set of commands, and narrowed his eyes when the 'Access denied' box flashed onto the screen.   
  
"Just some basic research on someone I'm interviewing next month." He answered calmly as she leaned farther forward. The ends of her hair grazed his neck and made him jolt.   
  
"It looks like," Max said matter-of-factly as Logan recovered enough to type in another attempt. "You are trying to access someone's financial records. Do tell." She said mischievously.   
  
"Prime Minister Donovan."   
  
"Nice guy." Max said as she threw a handful of pretzels in her mouth. "He insists that I come to dinner next time I'm in the UK."  
  
Logan arched a brow. "You know Richard Donovan?"  
  
"You remember back about eight months ago, his son and daughter got kidnapped?"   
  
Logan nodded and then grinned. "One interview had the daughter saying that the lady who saved her jumped from a building three stories high."  
  
Max has no choice but to smile back. "Sweet girl. She didn't like the fact that we were swinging from a cable off the bottom of an helicopter flying over the Thames, but I guess if I wasn't wearing a harness, I would be too."  
  
"Everyone discounted that story as an overactive imagination triggered by stress." Logan commented thoughtfully.   
  
"People only chose the believe what they want to believe, what they're ready to believe." Max took her eyes off from the screen to glance down at Logan. She was surprised when she found their faces inches apart. She sat back in the couch, disturbed, and suddenly quiet.  
  
"Do you always manage to fly three feet under the radar?" Logan asked oblivious to her change in mood.  
  
"Until now at least." She said with more bitterness than she had meant to.  
  
Logan nodded, barely fazed by Max's words. "If you would have just been nice to me to begin with, this might have never happened." Max's mouth dropped open when he smirked. "Does that teach you anything?"  
  
"Leave no survivors?" Max smiled. "Thanks for the free lesson."  
  
Logan simply stared. "Right." He stretched the word out into several syllables before turning back to his computer.  
  
Max sat back in silence a minuet, watching Logan as he went back to work. She thought the most endearing thing about his working was the way he typed one handed as he took a sip from his coffee mug. From what she could tell, the security was higher than he had thought it would be, since he scowled every time he got the 'Access Denied' screen.   
  
"Damn." He muttered as he tried to completely bypass the password, usually his last attempt because it was the easiest to trace. Even that didn't work. Either he was losing his touch, or they had upped security recently. Chances were the latter. When he noticed his coffee mug was empty, he decided to take that opportunity to stretch and get a refill.   
  
Max flipped off the TV and leaned forward on the couch again. "Mind if I give this a try?" She asked as Logan stood up.   
  
Logan looked at her somewhat skeptically. "Do you know how to use it?" She seemed to be the more in your face, talk or die, kind of person that would have very little use for computers.   
  
Max smiled demurely. "I think I'll manage." She typed slowly and deliberately, without the practiced grace of someone who used computers a lot.   
  
He just reached to doorway when he heard the TV turned back on. "Give up already?" He questioned, trying to keep from sounding smug.  
  
"I'm done." Max said evenly, crossing her legs. He shook his head. For what she did for a living, she wasn't very persistent.   
  
She was still in the same spot when he walked back from the kitchen. He was lucky he was sitting on the floor when he looked at the computer screen. In those thirty seconds it'd taken him to walk to the door, she'd managed to hack the bank of England, when he'd been at for a half hour with no success. "How…what?" Logan sputtered, thinking his eyes were playing some sort of cruel joke. There was no way, simply no possibility that she could have pulled that off.   
  
"I also reconfigured your hard drive to make the partitioning more efficient." Max said with a distracted grin. "I'll be ready in a half hour. You're taking me up to Seattle, and your going to find me something to do."  
  
Logan heard her run upstairs before he even realized what he'd agreed to. 'God help me.' He thought as he tried to figure out how Max had done what she did.  
  
  
"I'd rather die than get in that car." Max stated firmly as she and Logan walked out the front door of the house.   
  
"Well, chances are I'll die if I get into your car with the way you drive." Logan shot back while Max locked the door.   
  
"Stop being a pansy, Logan. I've only been in a handful of accidents, and most of them weren't my fault anyway."  
  
"Just let me drive and we'll be okay."   
  
"You think your going to drive Ramon?" Max snorted. "You must have eaten lead paint as a child."  
  
Both of them saw Krit's Corvette still parked in front of the garage at the same time. "Got a key for it?" Logan asked.  
  
"No. But I can hotwire it in less than sixty seconds." Max grinned as she rushed towards the Corvette. Krit might be a little freak ninety nine percent of time, but next to Ramon, he had about the nicest car in the family. Max grinned as she lay across the seat and saw the small piece of paper taped over the spot where you gained access to the wires. 'Get the hell out of my car, Max.'   
  
Max didn't even bother to take the note off as she pulled out wires and began sorting through them. Within seconds the engine purred to life. "All yours." She said as she slid over to the passenger seat.   
  
They were about halfway to Seattle, complete with Max fiddling with the radio, going through every inch of the car, and criticizing how he drove when Max finally though to ask what they were going to do.  
  
"I have no id…" Logan trailed off as the grin spread across his face.   
  
"What?" Max asked warily.  
  
"It's a surprise." Logan took his eyes off the road for a minuet to glance at Max. "I think you'll like it though."  
  
"Tell me." Max demanded, to which Logan's grin spread. "Just so you know, I've killed before, and I'll do it again should the occasion arise. If this involved publicly embarrassing me, history will repeat itself."  
  
Logan only hoped that what Jhondie had said earlier applied to all of them.   
  
Logan parked the Corvette a block away from his destination, knowing perfectly well that the place was going to be packed, seeing as it was one of the last ones left in the city. "Come on." He said to Max.   
  
She was silent, walking down the street in step with Logan, but it was easy to tell that she was unsure, almost nervous about what was going on. Then he knew the instant she realized where they were. Her shoulders tensed and he was pretty sure that he was screwed. "The movies? You brought me to the movies?" She asked quietly.   
  
The Classic Six was one of the few places left in Seattle where you could actually see a movie and not have to take a baseball bat into the theater with you. It had six screens, three being used for pre-pulse favorites on a regular rotation, and three being reserved for whenever Hollywood deemed in necessary to produce a new film, which wasn't very often. So if you wanted to see a movie, your best bet was going to be to see a classic.   
  
"Yeah. Jhondie mentioned that you guys hadn't ever gotten to go to one, and I know how many movies you watch…" Logan shrugged. "I thought you might like to check one out."  
  
Max stared at the long line of people awaiting their tickets. "You brought me to the movies." She repeated. Logan was immensely relieved when he saw the smile bloom across her face. "I've always wanted to go to one. At first it was because we weren't allowed, but after that it was pure unmotivation. Wow…I don't know what to say."  
"Max…speechless. Someone call God, I think hell froze over."  
  
"You don't have time to make any calls. You're taking me to the movies." Max said as grabbed Logan's arm and drug it towards the long line behind the ticket counter. It was a basic fact that the only reason Max was holding Logan's arm was because it was attached to his body, which was where the wallet was.   
  
"Welcome to the Classic Six." The adolescent teenage said in a monotone. "How can I help you this afternoon?" It looked and sounded like the guy was on the fifth hour of an eight hour shift, and the below minimum wage pay he was getting just wasn't doing it for him.  
  
"What's showing?" Max asked practically bouncing. The ticket seller testily pointed to a sign over his head.  
  
Max glanced at him helplessly. It was kind of scary that a person who could hack into the bank of England in less than thirty seconds couldn't decide what movie she wanted to see. "We'll take two for "The Silence of the Lambs." Logan said.  
  
They stocked up on food, Max insisting that she would not be able to make it two and a half hours with just about one of every food the concession counter carried. It took both of them to carry it into the theater.   
  
They were luckily about fifteen minuets early for the show, so it wasn't too terribly hard to get semi decent seats. After settling back in her seat, Max immediately dug into her Snow Caps and silently tossed them into her mouth. Logan was about to tell her that it wasn't polite to put your feet up on the chair in front of her, but hell, it was her first movie, she could do whatever she wanted.   
  
The movie theater started to slowly fill, everyone from older men and women who were probably around when 'Silence of the Lambs' was first released to young teenagers that weren't there for the movie anyway.  
  
Max was talking a mile a minuet, practically jumping up and down in her seat as the lights dimmed. Logan just smiled, watching her as she leaned forward in her seat as they announced where all the exits were. He was glad he brought her here; it was certainly a learning experience watching Max see her first movie way into adulthood. She looked like she was five and being distracted by a ball of tin foil. The usual tough wall that surrounded her was dropped, however momentarily, and Logan planned on enjoying it.   
  
"Hey, girlie, put your feet down." The high-pitched voice hissed at Max from behind. That relaxed innocence that Logan had referred to melted away in a heartbeat. She narrowed her eyes and deliberately uncrossed and crossed her ankles on the chair in front of her. Logan had to stifle a laugh as Max loudly slurped a sip out of her soda.   
  
Jodie Foster jogged through the woods outside of Quantico when the woman who must have had suicidal tendencies decided to bother Max again. "Hey, girl." The woman leaned so close to Max that she could feel her breath on the back of her neck, which was just truly disgusting. Logan was pretty sure Max snapping her neck would ruin the mood that they had going a few minuets ago. "Move your feet, I can't see the screen."  
  
"I bought my ticket, I can put my feet wherever I damn well please." Max shot back, and several heads turned.   
  
"Look, I'm just trying to enjoy the movie, and your huge feet are preventing that from happening." Max turned around in her chair, ever so slowly, and faced the woman. She was probably late thirties, early forties, a mass of gray hair teased and sprayed so that Max could throw a brick at it and chances were that hair still wasn't going anywhere. The lady was complaining about her feet, well the man behind her probably couldn't see over her hair, either. She was your classic white trash that resembled a poodle more than anything. Max did the only sensible thing she could think of.  
  
Logan just about died laughing when Max, again slowly and deliberately, threw a handful of popcorn at the irritating woman. She let out a little screech as she picked particles out of her hair.   
  
"You little bitch!" People weren't watching the movie any more; they were watching the soap opera going on three rows from the top.   
  
Max grinned wickedly as she turned around in her seat and returned her feet to the top of the chair. Logan was covering his face with his hands, suppressing laughter as best as he could. She caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye, but it was already to late. She started to turn just as she felt the ice-cold liquid hit the top her head, sliding down her neck, back and face. She heard Logan's quick intake of breath, and then the final straw was when the piece of ice slid down the front of her shirt and got caught in her bra. The bitch was dead.   
  
Logan was already grabbing for Max as she spun in the chair, halfway over the back, when he managed to nab her around the waist and pull her back. She landed kicking and squirming in his lap, and he grabbed her wrist, wondering where exactly she'd managed to hide the knife that she'd somehow gotten in her hand in the blink of an eye. "Let me go." Max hissed, desperately trying to pull herself off of Logan's lap. "I'm going to gut her." She purposely raised her voice projecting it towards the woman who had just spotted the knife and now was shrieking hysterically that Max was going to kill her.   
  
Sadly, Logan believed her, and as much as he hated hurting women, he applied pressure to her wrist and her fingers jerked, dropping the knife. Logan grabbed it before she could make another swipe at it, and shoved it in the bag of popcorn as a manager quickly walked down the aisle towards them. Speaking of the woman, she was currently screeching and running as fast as her cellulite legs could carry her away from this hissing Max.   
  
"Is there a problem here?" The manager asked warily approaching the pair. He looked afraid, and had reason to be, since Logan was still basically holding Max down.   
  
"Nope." Logan said with a false grin. Max somehow managed to punch him in the stomach and the smile became very tense and he spoke again. "We're all good here."  
  
"Fuck this! I'm going to kill the bitch!" Max shouted into Logan's shoulder as he tried to muffle her words.   
  
"She had a knife!" Some random audience member spoke up. The din that had overcome the room when the woman had dumped her coke over Max's head came to complete silence as the manager assessed Max.   
  
"I think we're going to have to ask you to leave," When Max stilled, it was much more scary than when Logan had barely been controlling her.   
  
"And why might that be?" Max asked, sitting up slowly. She was still in Logan's lap only because he didn't trust her enough to let her go.   
  
"Umm…you brought a concealed weapon into the theater and you caused a disturbance to the other patrons." He sounded like he was reading it straight out of a manual. That and the fact that he wanted to get far away from this psycho woman as soon as possible made him forget his people skills.  
  
"The concealed weapon, as you call it, I have a permit for. I'm a government agent, and I must be armed at all times." Max shot back annoyed. "Want some ID?"   
  
"Th-that's okay, I believe you." She could have claimed to be the Pope and he would have said the same thing.   
  
"Then what's the problem?" Max asked dramatically, as if trying to attack someone with a knife was a common thing. Of course, in her life it really was.   
  
"Max," Logan said slowly, reading the young manager's expression carefully. "Let's just go." This guy was getting ready to call the police, and that would just be interesting, explaining to Lydecker why someone who was supposed to be speaking to shareholders was arrested in a movie theater in the middle of the day. The manager shot him a relieved look, glad that he was lending a hand. In reality, it was kind of funny watching Max flip out on people, especially since this was where she ended up.   
  
Max shot daggers at Logan with her eyes. "I want to watch the movie, Logan." She hissed menacingly.   
  
"We'll rent it." Logan said quickly, letting go of his hold from around Max's waist, but still watching her carefully. "Let's just go."   
  
Everyone stared at them as they gathered their stuff. Logan had his hands full of candy. When they started to walk down the aisle and Max saw the dozens of pairs of startled eyes locked on her every move, she had no choice by to lunge forward and yell "Blah!" At least two people yelped and countless others jumped out of their seats. Logan grabbed Max's hand and dragged her down the aisle before she could send any more people on the short trip to the therapist.   
  
When they both pushed through the glass doors into the humid afternoon air, their hands still linked from Logan dragging Max out of the theater. Both their faces were sober as Logan quietly spoke. "I have never, in my life, been kicked out of a place before."  
  
Max managed one choked sound as she shoved her wet and matted hair back off her face. "This isn't funny at all."  
  
Max turned her head to look at Logan. Logan turned his head to look at Max. When their eyes locked they stared for a moment before both burst into hysterical laugher. They had to stop walking, Max leaned weakly against a light pole, Logan against her shoulder as they giggled uncontrollably. Max's sides started to ache and Logan was short of breath when they finally calmed down enough to function.   
  
"Oh god, I left the bag of…" Max suddenly trailed off as the manager walked out of the theater. He spotted them immediately and held up the bag of popcorn with two fingers, as if it was poisoned.  
  
"Hey!" He called over. "You forgot your knife." Logan watched a sector policeman who had been standing at the end of the street on his patrol look up. This couldn't be good.  
  
"Oh good." Max said as she started to walk forward. "Now I don't have to go look for it." Logan jerked Max back by the hand he still held, and over her yelp of protest, he started to drag her towards the car that was parked down the street. "Logan! I need to go get my knife? What's your problem?"  
  
"You were carrying a concealed weapon, and even if you have a permit for it, they'd call Lydecker and you'd have to explain why you were at the theater in the middle of the day." Logan hissed. Max acknowledged this and stopped fighting him, falling into step beside him. When Logan started to pull the keys out of his pocket and unlock the car, Max pulled him away, quickly backing into an alley. "Wha--" Max shot him a look that cut him off. She sensed something he didn't. She shoved Logan against the wall, pressing her bodies into his, blending them into the shadows.   
  
Max's mind, which had previously been thinking of escape and evade, simply went blank as her eyes met Logan's in the shadowy darkness. It was suddenly very quiet, neither of them was sure if it was just their imaginations or what, but it was silent, eerily so. Logan frowned slightly, as if he was trying to talk himself out of something.   
  
Max knew she should shove him away, she knew it was a mistake, that she didn't want this to happen. Well, at least she shouldn't want it to happen. But when Logan's hand came up to brush across her jaw, she didn't shove him away, but slightly moved forward, suddenly wanting him to touch her more than she wanted to breathe.   
  
Logan didn't know what he was doing. He was just waiting for one sign from Max that she didn't want this, and he would stop. Instead, she leaned forward. And that was when he knew he was lost, helplessly lost.   
  
Max's face instinctively tilted back as Logan lowered his own. Max had been through a lot of things in her life, but that endless amount of time, her stomach was jumping in anticipation. His lips brushed against hers in that first tentative kiss, as if he was asking for permission. And that was what made her want to melt into a weak puddle at his feet. If he'd been demanding, then she could have brushed him off with one flick of her wrist, but the gentleness that still carried such intensity broke down all of her barriers and had her arms rising to lace around his shoulders.   
  
Logan was startled when Max suddenly shoved him back. "Get off me." She muttered as she stalked out of the alley. Logan followed her completely thrown off. She hadn't exactly been fighting him off, and unless he was terribly mistaken, she'd responded quite well, thank you.   
  
"Max?" Logan called up to her. She was walking in quick jerky steps, her arms crossed as she stared at the ground. "What's the matter?" 'What'd I do?'  
  
Max took three more steps before suddenly whirling to face Logan. "What the hell do you want from me?" She practically shouted.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan, in contrast, kept his voice calm and his thoughts collected.  
  
"Is this about your article?" She raged. "Are you just trying to kiss my ass so you can get a interview out of me?"  
  
Max let out one startled gasp when Logan shot forward and grabbed her arms. "Listen to me now, and listen to me closely." His voice was still that deadly quiet that sent a shiver down Max's spine. "This has nothing to do with some article. Nothing at all, and if I recall correctly, I wasn't kissing your ass, I was kissing your lips, and if I get my way, I'll do it again. Don't even try and pass what just happened off as me using you, because both of us know it's more than that." Logan let go of Max's arms and leaned back slightly. There was still fire behind his eyes, but Max now knew everything she needed to.   
  
"Good answer." Max said. In one quick movement, Max cupped her hand around Logan's neck, dragging his face down to hers. He was startled, thrown off balance as Max fused her lips to his. When he stumbled forward, they knocked into the Corvette parked behind them, and Max knocked her elbow into the side view mirror, but her gasp of pain quickly turned into a moan of pleasure when Logan wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer.   
  
It took them a while to actually let go of each other long enough to get into the car and start the long ride back to Max's house. It was especially longer because of having to pull off onto the side of the road every three miles when Max attacked him again.   
  
This was going to get interesting.  



	16. Chapter 16

Extra Ordinary I  
  
Chapter 16  
  
"Where the hell is Max?" Zack's tone of toughness was lost because he was saying this around a mouth full of chicken lo mien. Krit had announces in as little words as humanly possible that he'd cracked Phillip Costello's hard drive about a half hour before, but they had still been waiting for the Chinese food delivery to get there, and they did have their priorities.   
  
"She's on the front porch." Jhondie answered digging through the brown paper bag. "Who took my egg roll?"   
  
"What's she doing on the front porch?" Zack questioned.   
  
"This and that." Syl supplied evasively. Before Zack could question Max's leisure habits further, she slid into a chair next to Krit who was quickly and quietly hammering away at his computer. "Now can we stop worry about her, please, and lets get down to work? She'll get in here to help when she full well wants to." Syl didn't mean to be quiet so rude about it, but she was the one who went on the front porch to pay the delivery guy, and she didn't think Max would mind overly much.  
  
"Well, before we get started, where's Cale? We can't exactly have him walking in on the middle of this." He'd been hanging around so much lately; it was almost unnoticeable by now.  
  
"He's on the front porch, too." Zane answered with a knowing grin. Syl smacked him, hard, on the back of his head, making him spill rice all over the table. "What?" He asked innocently holding up his hands.   
  
"Shut up." She said fiercely under her breath.  
  
Zack stared at them coolly. "What am I missing?" Syl glared at Zane, who merely smiled at her. Krit covered a barely suppressed laugh with a mouth full of egg roll. Jhondie probably would have laughed too, but she saw Krit eating *her* egg roll, and was contemplating what way she was going to hurt him for it.   
  
"Logan and Max having been hanging out an awful lot lately." There was a loud thump and Zane slid back from the table, grabbing his leg. "Ouch, damn it, Syl!"  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" Zack's fork was halfway between the plate and his mouth. He hadn't been home the last week, dealing with a situation in Southern California had kept him busy, but it seemed like a lot had happened since he was gone. Of course, any one of the people sitting around the table could tell him that it had been going on for about another week before hijackers had required Zack's 'special touch'.   
  
"Oh, nothing much." Zane answered quickly when Syl stared threatening at him.   
  
"No, what aren't you saying?" Zack asked, quickly rising from his chair, staring suspiciously at the people sitting around the table. No one said a word; in fact, they wouldn't even make eye contact, unless you counted Krit's smirk into the computer screen.   
  
Zack scowled and stormed out of the room. "Good job, Zane." Syl snapped.  
  
"What?" Zane asked, grinning. "Its not like he wouldn't have found out anyway."  
  
"So, Zack's going to walk out there and find out what is going on when he catches Logan with his tongue down Max's throat." Jhondie supplied to her often-dense brother.   
  
Zane's face fell. "Oh. Poor Logan."  
  
Krit perked up. "I think the real question now should be, who wants to watch?"   
  
Everyone in the family could agree that though Krit's words were few and far between, when he did chose speak, it was more often than not brilliant. Everyone scrambled away from the table in record speed.   
  
The scene was hilarious. Or, at least it was if your name wasn't Max, Logan, or Zack and you were watching from the living room window. When Zack pulled open the door, he was…well…distressed to find the man who was about to expose Manticore to the world with his tongue down his sister's throat. Manticore wasn't the only thing he was about to expose, seeing as several buttons on Max's shirt had *somehow* come undone. Zack 'politely' cleared his throat, while silently plotting the best way to break Logan's legs.  
  
The only way Logan could think to describe Max's expression was 'Oh shit, Run." But he could be wrong, seeing as he only saw Max's face for that split second before she was on the ground. She'd pulled back so fast, added with the fact that she was about to get her ass kicked by her brother, even her super-balance couldn't keep her from landing on the ground with a loud thump. Logan dared to glance over in Zack's direction long enough to realize that he'd be better looking at the ground far, far away.  
  
"Max, can I see you inside." Zack's eyes were narrowed. It was a look that was meant to cause fear in the masses. It was working quite well. The door shut with a quiet click. You had to admire his control. He really wanted to slam that door, but he didn't. It was probably because he was waiting to slam Logan's head against a wall.  
  
Soon as the door was shut, Max was on her feet. "Shit." She said as she quickly re-buttoned her shirt. "Shit shit shit shit shit."   
  
"Max…" Logan didn't know what to say. Brothers were stereotypically overprotective of their younger sisters. That, he could deal with. But most brothers weren't multimillion-dollar military science projects that could be termed as weapons in themselves. They were screwed. It was as simple as that. They could run now, and get a head start, but either way; he was probably getting dismembered by the end of the day.  
  
"Okay." Max took a deep, steadying breath. "Okay. Uh…stay here. Don't move. I'll handle this." That was, unless Zack decided guns were necessary. God forbid he find out that she was considering sleeping with him. Before Zack's ever-so-kind interruption, she'd been thinking about making it sooner, rather than later. Hell, if he'd been five minuets later they would have probably forgotten they were outside in broad daylight. If that had been the case, Zack would have shot first, asked questions later.   
  
Max was so distracted by her upcoming date with death that she didn't notice the small group of people huddled in the living room. "Twenty bucks Logan runs." Syl whispered.   
  
"No, twenty bucks Zack breaks a bone." Jhondie shot back.  
  
Syl narrowed her eyes and watched Logan glance nervously around the front porch. "You're on."  
  
Max walked into the kitchen where she knew she could find Zack. The kitchen was a good place to be. They didn't have a whole lot of other weapons in there, at least that she knew of. Zack was leaning against the counter, his arms crossed, his chin angled out. 'Ouch.' Max thought. 'Standing right next to the knives. Not good.'  
  
"What the hell was that, solider?" Zack snapped as soon as she was completely in the room.   
  
When Zack was pissed there were very few ways of dealing with it. In fact, there was no way to deal with it rationally. "Well, Zack if you don't know what making out is, you're worse off than I thought."   
  
"Don't fuck around, Max. I'm serious."  
  
"So am I. Should I draw you a map, or how about a nice picture book? Would any of that help?" Max sat down at the table, ripping open a container of rice, the complete image of relaxation. It spoke nothing of the quaking fear that Zack could put in her when he was like this.   
  
"What the hell are you thinking? Of all the people in the world, he is the last person you should be getting involved with." Zack remained still, completely still, which was another sign of how pissed he really was.   
  
"Which makes it all the more appealing, doesn't it?" Max shot back.   
  
"What do you think Lydecker is going to say when he finds out about this?" That was a wrong move on Zack's part.   
  
Max eyes flashed. "I can do what I want when I want to with whoever I want to do it with. Not you, Lydecker, or anyone else for that matter is going to say any differently."   
  
"Stop being stupid! This is insane! He's out to expose us and he's using you to do it! I can't believe you don't see it!"   
  
Max slowly put down the container of rice. Temper was a vicious punch in the stomach and she had to fight to keep a grip on herself. "Is that what you think?" Her voice had lost the sarcasm and had picked up an icy edge.   
  
Zack knew he had treaded onto boggy ground. "I'm just looking out for you, Maxie." He said quietly.   
  
"You're not looking out for me at all. You're just pissed that I managed to find some small thread of happiness outside of assassinations and blowing things up, unlike you."  
  
Zack didn't show any reaction to Max's words. They'd been trained better than that. But they were cold enough to sting. "You call risking months and months of work happiness?"  
  
"What, you think I'm going to let case details slip in the throws of passion?" Max's head dropped forward as she mirthlessly laughed.   
  
"It's possible." Zack shot back defensively.   
  
Max was silent a moment. "You really think that little of me, Zack? Do you really think that small of me?" It hurt; it really hurt to know that he did.  
  
Zack ran a hand over his face, frustrated. "Relationships are messy, Max. You know that as well as I do, and that is why none of us have them. We don't know how to handle them, and when you get all tangled up in them, it's dangerous to them and you."  
  
Max clapped her hands three times, a mocking applause. "That was good. Did you practice that one?"  
  
"You are going to get hurt, I know you are." Zack said wearily. "I can't stand here and watch him hurt you."  
  
"Who says I'm not going to hurt him first?" When Zack remained silent, Max sighed. He was trying; he was really trying not to be an ass about this. He was failing miserably, but she had to give him credit for trying. "Look, Zack, for the moment, I'm happy. That doesn't happen very often. Can't you just let that alone, for now."  
  
"I've got a really bad feeling about this. You get serious with him, its going to come back and bite us in the ass. I know it will."  
  
"Who said anything about serious?" Max asked. She had the sudden urge to fidget. "We're messing around, that's it." Zack just narrowed his eyes further, if it was even possible. Max didn't mess around with anything. She was determined with everything she did, whether it is kicking Zane's ass for looking at her car wrong, or defusing a bomb in ten seconds or less. When she wanted to do something, she did it as soon as possible, and as fast as possible. Messing around simply wasn't her style. The fact that she had tripped this far into a relationship with him said a lot on its own. Along with that single-minded determination to be the best was her stubbornness. This meant that he wasn't going to get anywhere fighting with her, no matter how much he wanted to give her a nice, swift kick in the ass sometimes. The only place fighting with her would be frost burn. Max was just as good as freezing people out, as she was raging at them. The cold spells always lasted a hell of a lot longer than the temper tantrums.   
  
"Max, promise me you'll be careful." Zack amended after a long silence. "If you get hurt, I'll be honor bound to hurt him severely. He's a well-known guy, I think they'll know if he doesn't come back one day."   
  
It had the desired effect when Max smiled. "If he hurts me, I'll help with the cover up."   
  
They were utterly still, each in their own world, contemplating the next move. "Maxie, forgot to tell you." Zack said, suddenly brightening. "Krit cracked the financial records."  
  
You could almost see her ears perk; a testament to her cat DNA. "Really?" Her words were a delighted purr.   
  
"Yeah, we were waiting for you, that's why we didn't get started." That was a lie, of course, but they all served a purpose.   
  
"Well, where the hell are the rest of them? I want to see where Costello blows his money."  
  
"I'll go get rid of Cale and then we'll get back to business." Zack answered, a little to brightly. Max was busy peeking at the laptop to notice.   
  
After briefly bitching at the rest of his siblings for spying on Max and Logan, pointing out their total lack of maturity, then giving up when a twenty changed hands, Zack found himself on the front porch with the newest addition to his personal hit list.   
  
To Logan's credit, he looked liked he wanted to run, but remained in the chair. In his mind, chances were he was going to die in the same chair. The same chair that he's been partaking in more enjoyable activities fifteen minutes ago.   
  
The exchange of words was one sided, but it was quick and to the point. "You hurt my sister, I will use the jumper cables that are in the trunk of my car on very delicate parts of your anatomy. In fact, I think I might anyway." Zack turned and walked towards the door. "Max's got work to do. Go home." The door slammed this time.   
  
Logan decided that going home was a very good idea 


	17. Chapter 17

Extra Ordinary I  
  
Chapter 17  
  
At least once a month, they all went out to a random bar. Usually, Zane and Max ended up singing show tunes as they stumbled around completely drunk as they tried to dance. Syl and Jhondie acted sweet and innocent long enough to convince the Neanderthals that they were poor helpless women. They flipped their hair a lot, challenged them to a game of pool, and then giggled helplessly as they collected their money after whipping their a**es. Then they joined Max and Zane in the land of the belligerent. Zack was the responsible older brother, and the only one who really followed the 'no consumption of alcoholic beverages' rule that Manticore thought they listened too. Everyone else got pissy drunk and then Zack had to deal with the fun job of getting them all home in one piece. Four, sometimes five if they could talk Krit into coming, genetically engineered drunks…it wasn't a pretty thing.   
  
One lovely evening, Zane was so drunk that he was hitting on anything that opposing genitalia. For whatever reason, Syl decided she didn't like that, and walked up to Zane and tried to punch him in the face. While Zane was drunk, he wasn't quite as drunk as Syl, and he had time to duck. Unfortunately, Zack, who had been minding his own business and just happened to turn his head at the wrong time. Zack walked away with a broken nose. The whole humor of the situation amused Syl so much, she forgot how much a pig Zane was and hopped on his back for a piggyback ride. Zack still hadn't completely forgiving Zane for ducking.   
  
"Hey," Jhondie pushed open the door to Max's bedroom. "It's your turn to pick the bar."  
  
Jhondie was surprised to find Max standing in front of her mirror, meticulously applying eyeliner. Max rarely, if ever, put on anything more than a quick coat of lip gloss, and maybe some mascara if it was warranted. "Sorry, I've got to pass tonight." She said mildly, turning to Jhondie and tapping the end of the pencil on the top of her dresser. "If someone would have told me that we were supposed to be going out tonight, I wouldn't have made other plans."  
  
"It was just decided about ten minuets ago when there was absolutely nothing else to do." Jhondie narrowed her eyes slightly. "Where are you going?" She asked after watching Max meticulously apply dark red lipstick. "You aren't going over there *again* are you?" Jhondie asked in the most unflattering whine.   
  
Max resisted the urge to sigh. She'd had this conversation, or some variation of it, with almost all of her siblings. The only one who didn't seem to be harassing her about it was Zane, mainly because he was pretty busy leering and making sick jokes. Zack said she was ignoring her work. Syl said she was ignoring her responsibilities. Krit just glared, but he was probably just jealous. Now it looked like Jhondie was going to say that she was ignoring her family. Marvelous. "Yes, I'm going to Logan's for dinner." She kept her voice smooth and calm. It was a trial, but she managed it.  
  
"What the hell do you do over there, anyway?" Jhondie asked imperiously, disdain lacing her voice. She flopped across Max's bed; half in sulk, half in amusement in watching Max girl herself up. It didn't happen often, so Jhondie wondered if she still had film in her camera. She mentally waved the thought away. One picture wasn't worth the destruction of her camera.   
  
Max smirked. Who'd have thought she, the queen of all that was an adrenaline rush, would be content to sit around talking. "Not a whole lot." Max said evasively.   
  
"A whole lot of nothing always means a lot more of something." Jhondie said, wiggling her eyebrows. Max ignored the comment, rooting through her closet, grabbing shirts at random. Jhondie was humming lightly, sarcastically if it was possible, but it had Max's shoulders stiffening. Why did everyone assume that every guy she spend time with, she was automatically sleeping with them. Yeah, sure, she didn't have any platonic relationships. Hell, she didn't even really have any friends out side her family. But did that mean she was incapable of having one? Her fingers clenched around the black shirt in her hand. "I'm not sleeping with him." Max blurted, quickly and defensively.   
  
Jhondie mentally did a victory dance. Of course Max hadn't slept with him. She would have told her, or Syl at least, by now. Now all she had to do was piss off Max enough to find out *why* she hadn't. "And why the hell not?" She asked in a low voice, suddenly picking up an edge that threw Max off guard.   
  
"What do you mean 'why not'?" Max asked, temper rising in her voice. She un-balled the shirt in her hand, and dropped it disgustedly when she saw how wrinkled it had become. She was sick of stressing over what to wear, when there was no real point in it. She grabbed the first shirt that she could reach, and yanked it on with jerky movements.   
  
"I'm asking why you haven't slept with him." Jhondie repeated. "I mean, is there some particular reason? Or are you just afraid?"   
  
Max snorted, but it seemed strained and panicked. "I'm not afraid of anything. I don't hop into bed with every guy I meet. But thanks for your faith in me, sister dear."   
  
Jhondie was all too aware of Max's techniques. She didn't even give her comment half a thought. "You're afraid of more than your willing to admit. You're afraid of guns, Zack, squirrels, and clowns. Now it seems Logan can be added to that list."   
  
Max smiled a knowing smile. "I simply choose not to use guns. I'm not afraid of Zack; in fact, I bet he's afraid of me. I'm not afraid of squirrels; I just want them eliminated from the Earth. And clowns are creepy. Logan doesn't scare me. If he scared me, I wouldn't be hanging out with him."  
  
Jhondie was almost convinced that Max believed that. "So you aren't afraid of Logan." Jhondie said agreeably. Max smiled, pleased that she got Jhondie to quit bugging her in less time than it usually did. "So it's the intimacy that scares you." Max narrowed her eyes. She walked right into that one.   
  
"Some one's been reading self help books." She said between her teeth.   
  
"Avoiding the question." Jhondie shot back brightly. "Just like saying yes."  
  
"Just because I haven't had sex with him doesn't mean I'm afraid too." Max repeated, hoping that hint of desperation in her voice was really exasperation. "And maybe, just maybe, he doesn't want to sleep with me. Think of that? Perhaps he isn't attracted to me."   
  
Jhondie's mouth dropped open. She stared for five full seconds in complete silence. Then she burst into laughter, rolling onto her back and gripping her stomach, almost falling off the bed as she rocked back and forth. Max gritted her teeth together and walked into the closet, the sound of Jhondie's laughter following her. "Do you seriously believe that?" She finally managed, breathless and hoarse from laughter.   
  
"Is it that far out of the realm of possibility? Is it possible that there is some man out there that wouldn't be attracted to one of us?"  
  
Jhondie snorted. "With our flexibility?"   
  
Max was quickly growing tired of this conversation. She walked out of the closet, pissed as hell, and wanting to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. She had wanted to dress up, or something close to it, but somehow she ended up in jeans and a tee shirt. Then she had planned on curling her hair, yet she was yanking it up onto a ponytail. And she was blaming it all on Jhondie. All. Her. Fault.   
  
"Are you that oblivious?" Jhondie asked. "Wait, I think you are. Well, let me tell you. I see the way he looks at you when you're not looking. I see the way you look at him when he's not looking. The two of you have no idea how truly pathetic you are. Its sickening for the rest of us."   
  
Max was about to spit some nasty retort, but then thought about her words. Logan was checking her out when she wasn't paying attention, which was something to properly consider and debate in the car later.   
  
"Are you attracted to him?" Jhondie waved a hand in front of her face. "Scratch that, we both know you are, and you'd just look stupid to deny it." She grinned wickedly when she heard Max grind her teeth. This was especially fun for Jhondie to finally have the opportunity to torture Max, one small payback for all the times she herself had found herself cornered by Max's roundabout arguments. "So the real question is, why are you afraid to act on that attraction."  
  
"Would you stop saying I'm afraid?" Max snapped. "Maybe I'd just like to take it slow."   
  
"Coming from the queen of one night stands." Jhondie muttered. Max's head whipped around so fast it was a strong possibility that she hurt herself.  
  
"What did you say?" She said carefully, each word slow and deliberate.   
  
Jhondie was about to apologize, she hadn't meant for her comment to hurt Max. But then she considered her options and thought against it. It could just be the kick in the a** she needed. "I find it surprising that you didn't just throw him into bed the first time he invited you to his place. Not your usual MO to be patient."   
  
Max stared silently for a full twenty seconds before moving. "Your one to talk." She spit as she grabbed her keys off her nightstand.   
  
"Hey, I'm not in denial about it, unlike some." Jhondie said rolling off the bed and following Max down the hallway. "Don't get all pissed at me, Maxie."   
  
"F**k you, Jhondie." Max went down the stairs two at a time. She brushed past a surprised Syl, who may or may not have said something to her, but she was more concerned with getting the hell out of there to talk.   
  
Jhondie kept an even pace with Max, following behind her, hoping she didn't go over the line, but knowing it was too late to worry about it. Max stormed through the kitchen, Zane and Krit perking up when Max slammed the door with enough force that the windows rattled. Jhondie pulled the door open and jogged after her.   
  
Syl walked in from the hallway, brows knit in question. Naturally, they all moved onto the porch to watch the genetically engineered cat fight that was about to take place.   
  
It was early yet, the sun just starting its descent, the rays bouncing off the pond, the water seeming gold in the dimming light. Jhondie caught up with Max about twenty feet from her car. "Max, wait up." When she didn't slow down, Jhondie grabbed her shoulder. Max made a low sound deep in her throat, then turned, already taking a swing. Jhondie blocked the fist with her forearm, sidestepping and grabbing Max's wrist at the same time, quickly twisting Max's arm behind her back. Damn, she's bad off, Jhondie though when she took an elbow to the stomach. It nearly knocked the breath out of her, but she recovered quickly and pushed her foot in the back of Max's leg, forcing Max to stumble forward. Max regained her footing, whipping around in a deadly spinning kick. Jhondie blocked the kick and shoved Max back again. "Maxie's in love." Jhondie taunted with a feral grin, then spun, Max's fist coming close enough to brush past her ear.  
  
Syl leaned against the railing, flanked on either side by Krit and Zane. When Jhondie's head snapped back, she sighed and jumped over the railing. "Where are you going?" Zane asked, proud of Max for going for the mouth, proud of Jhondie for paying her back with a fist to the stomach. No sister of his was a hair pullers or scratchers.   
  
"They are going to hurt each other." She called over her shoulder.   
  
"So?" Krit muttered. "It'll be good for them to knock some sense into each other."   
  
Syl pushed into the middle of the fight, fists and feet flying narrowly close to her head. God help either of them if one of them actually connected with her. "Cut it out," Syl snapped. She shoved Jhondie back, hooking her arms through her elbows from behind and dragging her back. Jhondie put up little fight, her tense muscles instantly relaxing. Max, on the other hand, wasn't one to give up quite so easily. Jhondie quickly leaned to the side to avoid Max's punch, which instead grazed off Syl's cheek.   
  
Max didn't know how, but she found her self slammed up against the side of her car in a chokehold, Syl's face dangerously close to hers. "I don't know what the hell your problem is, but you leave me the f**k out of it!" She shouted in one of her rare shows of temper. Zane chuckled from the porch.   
  
"Don't get messed up Max." Jhondie said, brushing imaginary dust off her hands. "Logan might think you're into the rough stuff."   
  
Max shot forward again, making it less than a step before Syl shoved her back again. "Uh uh. You wait till I'm out of the way before you start this shit again. Hell if I'm getting hurt because you two are complete dumb a**es."   
  
Max brushed a loose tendril of hair out of her face with the back of her hand with an exasperated sigh. "F**k it, you're not worth it." She said, angling her chin towards Jhondie. "You can't say shit like that to me…like I had a choice. I'm the queen of one-night stands? Who the hell do you think you are?" Max shook her head and rounded the hood of her car. "You know as well as I do what its like not to have a choice, but you still say that too me. I appreciate having my mistakes shoved into my face." She yanked open the car door, then slammed her hands on the hood. "And you know what? I am scared. For the first time in my life, I'm scared. But I don't need you shoving it down my throat." Max slid into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut.   
  
Syl didn't catch anything more than the last third of the argument, but she was perceptive enough to figure it out. "Did it ever occur to you that you're scared because Logan is different?" Max's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. "That you're scared because you wont be able to just walk away when your done, like the rest of the men you've been involved with?" It was completely silent for a moment, Max staring blankly ahead, before reaching up with a shaky hand and starting the engine. She pulled out, actually driving slowly for once in her life, and her car disappeared around the corner before any of them moved.   
  
"Jhon…honey, little tip. You want to get a point across to someone, can you please do it when I'm not home so I don't feel the urge to intervene?"  
  
Jhondie wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and stared blankly at the small smear of blood. "I could have drawn her a map or something, but I thought action spoke louder than words in this case."  
  
Syl put her hands on her hips and sighed. "You may have just gotten Cale laid."   
  
Jhondie smiled as they turned back to the house. "That or killed."   
  
"Twenty bucks on a slow painful death."  
  



	18. Chapter 18

A/N: I'd appolgize for the extreme delay on this chapter, but then I'd have to mean it, and I dont. I took a month off of writing while I went through tennis season and to get back into school. Now I'm back and I hope this long chapter makes up for my absence.   
  
Chapter 18:   
(Co-Written by the Greatest of All that is Evil: Cat)  
  
Logan drummed his fingers lightly on the steering wheel in perfect rhythm with the light piano concerto that flowed subtly through the speakers of his car. Even the congested traffic of the city streets couldn't put a damper on his mood. I was perplexing, though, to think that some people actually favored the desolate city over their own small towns. Of course, he chose to live there, so he really didn't have room to talk. Still, it made the Friday evening commute slow and endless. And since Max was supposed to be coming over for dinner, it just made it that much slower.   
  
Max was habitually late. You said seven; she interrupted that to mean seven fifteen. You'd think someone in the military from birth would be just a little more punctual. He wasn't complaining now, since he was running about twenty minutes behind himself due to a problem with their biggest advertisers that he'd spent all afternoon on the phone dealing with that mess. If he hadn't been looking forward to the evening in with Max, he probably would have taken a dive out of the window of his office around three that afternoon. Now if only he could figure out what he wanted to make for dinner, he'd be set.  
  
While the past two months had been interesting, spending the majority of his time with the most elite group of soldiers this country had to offer, the past two weeks had far surpassed that. He'd dated plenty of women in his life, but never had he been able to sit for hours talking, and just talking non-stop with no interruptions. Never had he been beaten, repeatedly, at chess by one. Never had the priority been anything else but getting her into bed. And that was a rather new, and frankly startling, development in this already complex relationship.   
  
He was still debating between and stir-fry as he turned into the parking garage. He was so surprised to see Max's car, he tapped his finger against the face of his watch to make sure it hadn't stopped. This couldn't be right. Max was…early. This could be a trap. Maybe he should turn and run before it was too late.   
  
But it was already too late. Max had been sitting on the hood of her car, and soon as he pulled up next to her, she hopped off and walked in his direction. She was so easy to read; sometimes her face could be so expressive it was scary. The she didn't cover the scowl with the saccharine sweet smile quite quick enough, and even then the air vibrated with bad vibes. Lovely, Logan thought with a small sigh as he rolled down the window, absolutely lovely.   
  
"Hey." He said brightly. "Am I late? Hope you weren't waiting long."  
  
"Nah." Max replied, despite her smile, her eyes still shimmered with an underlying violence. "I'm early."  
  
Logan followed impulse, grabbing Max's hand and tugging her forward till their lips met in a slow, lingering kiss. Max didn't relax, as she normally did when they kissed. Hell, it was probably the only she ever completely relaxed. That meant she was pissed at someone. It was more than likely at one of her siblings, because if he'd had done something wrong, he would have found out when it wasn't Max meeting him in the parking garage. It would have been some guy named Bubba with a hatchet and some Ziploc bags. When they broke apart, Max wasn't exactly swooning. He must be losing his touch.   
  
"Max, darling." Logan said with a small frown, brushing the back of his fingers across her cheek. "What's the matter?"  
  
Max simply glared. "Nothing." She spit. Logan merely raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Nothing is wrong." She said, forcing calm into her voice.  
  
Logan nodded, not wanting to push her. She'd sulk around until she was ready to talk about it. "Healthy or not."   
  
"Huh?" Max asked, confused.   
  
"Still debating what to cook, just trying to find out what your interested in tonight."  
  
Max shrugged. "I'm indifferent." She stepped back as Logan opened the car door and finally stepped out.   
  
"You're helpful." He muttered as he reached into the backseat and snagged the bag of groceries he had the foresight to stop and buy.   
  
Max smiled innocently. "You could always make both." It might have been a joke if he hadn't already been aware of her eating habits. Logan tossed Max his car keys. "Go on up, I'll grab this stuff and be up in a minute."   
  
Max caught the keys one handed, barely having moved a muscle. She sneered at the car for good measure, wondering why she was getting involved with someone who had terrible taste in vehicles. Her shoulders tensed as the earlier words of Jhondie popping into her head for no apparent reason.   
  
I see the way he looks at you when you're not looking.   
  
She wasn't about to deny that there was a mutual attraction between them. It had been instantaneous, almost frighteningly so, on that long ago night at Phillip Costello's birthday party. She might have been there as Veronica Sprouse, and she might have thought of him as the poster child for bored rich white kids everywhere, but the spark had still been there. When her true identity had been revealed, and his true mission, she'd lashed out quickly and violently, this time the spark of attraction fueling her vicious temper.   
  
Why are you afraid to act on that attraction?  
  
It was a question she asked herself over and over again. She never asked to want him; she never wanted to be drawn to him. But she was. Phony sentimentality. It would get them killed, Lydecker had told them when they were children. Love was just an illusion people over-exaggerated to make themselves feel unjustly safe. She never thought of any of those childhood 'lessons' when he did something thoughtlessly romantic. Like the single red rose he'd had delivered to the house, an apology for canceling on dinner. Or it could be something as simple and absentminded as the brush of fingers across her arm in the middle of a conversation. It was those little details that made everything so complicated.   
  
  
Coming from the queen of one-night stands.  
  
Those three times during the year where she had no control over her actions were the worst times in her life. She could brush off the intense medical testing, she handled the training drills, she took on tasks so awful, so disgusting, that even the most well trained norms would shiver. But those two days, those days that were hazy with untamable lust, those were the times she cursed what she was made to be. If one of her siblings didn't catch the signs in time, she was bound to wake up in some random guy's bed, some guy whose name she probably didn't know. She wouldn't remember sleeping with him. She would feel so violated by what her hormones made her do; it was almost like being raped. But then she couldn't blame someone for doing it to her; she could only blame herself for giving in. As if she had a choice. Even then, it was better than what the doctors at Manticore might do. Giving in three times a year was far better than being made the carrier for the next breed of super soldiers.   
  
It was different now. Logan was the first man she'd ever cared about enough to want to take it slow. It wasn't about sweaty gropes in some dark room with a faceless guy she'd never see again. This wasn't some whacked out escapade she had no choice in. She wanted him, plain and simple. She was far from a virgin, physically, but she might as well be emotionally.   
  
  
You're scared because you wont be able to just walk away.  
  
Syl had been absolutely right. She wasn't going to be walking away from this the same as when it started. Was it worth the risk? Taking that last step onto uncertain territory? Putting her feelings completely in the hands of another person.   
  
That's when it hit Max. Hadn't she done that already?  
  
"Max?" Logan asked, concerned, waving a hand in front of her face. "You okay?" She realized that she'd been standing in the same spot, staring blankly into space, Logan's keys pressing painfully in the palm of her hand.   
  
"Sorry," She muttered, forcing her fingers to relax.   
  
"You were in another world completely." Logan commented. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.   
  
"Sorry." She repeated. She quickly grabbed a bag of groceries out of his arm. "Just distracted. Let me help you with those." She said quickly. She hurried across the garage, sliding Logan's ID card through the security panel, then waiting for the elevator to reach the ground floor. She would wonder for weeks to come what could have possibly possessed her to say what she said next.   
  
"Logan." She turned around to see him shutting the driver's side door. "Do you want to have sex with me?"   
  
  
Chapter Eighteen: Part Two  
  
Logan had never been easily shocked. But her simple question knocked him back as effectively as a fist to the stomach. He glanced down confused when he felt something cold and wet soaking through his shoe. Somewhere along the way, the bag of groceries had slipped out of his hands. Currently, a half-gallon of milk was gushing out over a shoe that probably cost more than some families made in a year. His mouth moved for a moment before words actually came out. "Excuse me?" He choked.   
  
Max's tense shoulders only became tenser at his blank shock. "You heard me. Do you or do you not want to sleep with me."   
  
Logan shook his head slightly. He must be hearing things. Normal people didn't just blurt stuff like that out in the middle of a parking garage. Hell, when was Max normal? It had to be a trap. "What kind of question is that?" He asked carefully. Until he knew exactly what was going on, he wasn't about to incriminate himself.   
  
Max made a sound low in her throat. As if on cue, the elevator door slid open with a light ding. Max stomped inside. Logan glanced down at the unsalvageable bag lying wet on the ground before racing over to catch the door before it shut. Max was off on one of her tangents, and he wasn't about to incriminate himself until he knew exactly what was going on. "What kind of question is that?" He asked quickly, putting one hand on either side of the elevator door. While it effectively held the doors opened, it made Max feel even more caged in then she already was.  
  
"Stop avoiding the question!" Max growled. "I simply want to know where this is going." Logan almost laughed at that. Simply. Right.   
  
"Do you want it too?" He asked carefully. Max narrowed her eyes. That condescending tone of his could only mean one thing. He didn't feel that way about her.   
  
"Do you think I would even bring up the subject if I didn't?" She said coldly. She mentally raved and ranted about how stupid she was to think that, then changed her train of thought. She was going to go home, extract Jhondie's eyes with a spoon, the curl up into a ball and cry her eyes out. Rejection burned in the pit of her stomach.   
  
Logan suddenly wanted to smile. Though, a smile might get his legs broken, the humor of the situation just struck him all at once. Max seethed when he had the nerve to grin. He was laughing at her. Laughing. At. Her. "I'm leaving." Max took a step forward, annoyed when Logan didn't retreat from holding the elevator doors open.   
  
"Where are you going?" Logan asked, still grinning, blocking Max's path. If she really wanted to leave, he'd be in several unidentifiable pieces right now. But she was still standing there, albeit glaring menacingly.   
  
"Its obvious that I was mistaken on where this was going, so I think its best that I leave." She said after a long moment of silence.   
  
Logan became serious again. "Max." He said after a sigh. "Look at me."  
  
She did the mature thing and looked in the other direction. "No." She muttered.  
  
"Ok, then, we'll talk this out this way."  
  
"What's there to talk out? You don't want me, so I'm out of here. I think I've embarrassed myself enough for one night."  
  
Logan was really trying not to laugh. He was failing miserably, but he was still trying. This was completely ridiculous. The two of them were utterly hopeless. "Max, would you please look at me?" He repeated.   
  
"No." She whined like a petulant three-year old who hadn't had their nap. Logan did the simple thing and let go of the door and reached around Max's face to grasp her chin lightly with his fingers. He took a small step forward as the doors closed behind him. Max's instinctive step back was almost an insult. He turned her face slowly, moving forward to stand close to her. Looking down into her eyes, he smiled softly. "You caught me off guard back there."  
  
Max gritted her teeth when he turned momentarily to slide his ID card through the second security system and pressed the penthouse button. How was she supposed to make her quick escape when he was dragging upstairs. "I think you got your point across just fine, Logan." Max said. She was even more mortified when she heard the waver in her voice.   
  
"You startled me. You show up an hour early, I barely walked in the door myself, and the first thing you say is, basically, 'Do you want to have sex?' Excuse me if I was slightly thrown off."   
  
Max didn't speak, she couldn't. She was afraid to get her hopes up, and yet as much as she wanted to get the hell out of there, she couldn't move as much as she couldn't tear her eyes from Logan's.   
  
"So why don't we try this again." Logan said softly. "Ask me again."  
  
Max felt like she was drowning, and she had no idea why. Her breath caught in her throat as she spoke. "Where is this going? Where are *we* going." She whispered, her voice full of unspoken emotion.   
  
Logan could think of no words that would work, nothing that fully expressed what he wanted to say. So he did the simplest thing possible and slowly lowered his mouth down to her, his lips brushing across hers feather lightly.  
  
It wasn't as if they hadn't kissed before, because of course they had. But now, for whatever reason, it was different. It was as if when Max turned and reached up to wrap her hands around the back of Logan's neck, pulling his face down to deepen the kiss, every touch was the first, but wouldn't be the last. Not if either of them had anything to say about it.  
  
Logan's hand moved from Max's chin, the back of his fingers moving to run down the side of Max's neck. He wasn't sure, but she may have shivered. Max shivering was just odd, so he did it again. Sure enough, she trembled as his fingertips slid over the smooth column of skin. There was some sick pleasure in knowing that you could make someone who could laugh in the face of danger, quite literally, tremble.  
  
"Max." Logan whispered breathlessly as he pulled back an inch, breaking there contact for a moment.   
  
"What?" Max asked, still wary. Was he about to tell her this was all a mistake? This was just to good to be true.  
  
Logan smiled, still seeing the nerves shimmering under her eyes. He dropped his forehead against hers. "Some of us can't hold our breaths indefinitely."   
  
Max laughed softly, the tension and nerves finally dissipating. "Sorry, I forgot." She smiled for the first time in hours, running her fingers through is hair.  
  
"Am I allowed to ask what brought about this sudden change?" He asked, his hands wandering down to massage her spine softly.  
"Let's just say, the two of us aren't in Jondie's highest of graces right now."  
"Well then," Logan said considering. "She gets pissed at us, I assume you two, uh, exchanged words, since all of you do three times daily, and you end up here." Logan moved his arms to tighten around her waist. "Why can't you have these fights with your sister more often?"  
  
Max smiled distractedly as her eyes focused in on the top button of Logan's dark blue dress shirt. Not that she was complaining, because he filled out a suit quite nicely, she thought fleetingly as her eyes roamed down and back up again. But the buttons were really the most fascinating. The shirt was conservative, tailor cut, and expensive most definitely. The question was, what exactly was underneath?   
  
Before Max could stop her self, she reached up and had the top button opened in a millisecond with the flick of one finger. Logan sucked in an uneasy breath as Max undid the next. "Uh, Max..." He managed. "What...are you doing?"  
  
"I think you should be tested for a learning disability, because you are really slow." Max said as she pressed an open mouthed kiss to the hollow of Logan's throat. "I'm undressing you."  
  
  
"So I've gathered." Logan muttered. "Max, we're in an elevator." He said pushing her busy hands away. He thought it was best that he take one big step back, at least until they were in he safety (not to mention privacy) of his home. The way Max was looking at him, he took an additional step back just to be safe. "I'm not about to--"  
  
In that millisecond his eyes left Max's face to check what floor they were on, Max pounced. She plowed into him, crushing his mouth against his. Before he could catch his balance, she'd wrapped her legs around his waist, and he stumbled back. They might have fallen if his back hadn't hit the door behind them. His head spun as the blood drained right out of it.   
  
While one hand gripped his shoulder for balance, the other hand was fisted in his hair as she brutally assaulted his mouth with her own. His hands, acting on a mind of their own, molded to that lovely bottom of hers. His blood was screaming for her, that little beam of sanity was quickly dimming. "Max, were in an elevator." He managed when her mouth streaked across his face.  
  
"So what?" Max asked with a laugh, her hands tugging his shirt free off this pants. She made quick work of the buttons and was pulling it off his shoulders when their eyes locked. Their lips met in a kiss that was near violent with greed. Tongues tangled, teeth nipped. Max let out a small moan against his mouth as his hands streaked under her shirt. Max was tempted just to rip the shirt off him, but was still rational enough to realize that she rather liked it, so she managed to keep it in one piece as she yanked it off his arms.   
  
"Max, wait." Logan tried to pry her off him, but she was wrapped around him with a death grip, and quite obviously wasn't going anywhere. As soon as he managed to tear his lips away from hers, without a second of hesitation, she was nipping her way down his throat. "Max, hold on a second. We're in an elevator." He repeated.   
  
Just then, a muted bell rang and the elevator door slid open with a stealthy silence.   
  
Max slid down, landing on her feet just as silently and straightening her shirt, as if jumping someone in an elevator was natural. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Logan, staring blankly out to the hallway that led to Logan's front door. "Logan, I don't want you to regret this." She said after a long moment. "If you are at all not sure about this…" She trailed off, unsure herself.   
  
With only a moment hesitation, Logan reached down, laced his fingers with Max's, and led her by the hand out of the elevator car.   
  
When the doors shut behind them with a quiet swoosh, no words could be spoke, no words could be said. There was no turning back, and it didn't scare either of them, as much it probably should have.   
  
  
  
Max lay in the night sky, her eyes dark and unfocused, the skyline of Seattle twinkling distantly beyond the picture window. 'Forgot to close the blinds' Max thought unconcerned, though maybe she should have been considering what could have been seen by anyone across the street with a pair of binoculars. Or if any of her family decided to wander by. She wouldn't put it past some of them and wondered if they knew where he lived. She hoped not.   
  
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Even as the thought popped into her head for the umpteenth time, Logan's arms tightened around her in his sleep. It had never been that heartbreakingly slow and sweet that Max wanted to weep out of the sheer emotion of it. And she'd never wanted to stay afterwards, like she was now, her head tucked under Logan's chin, her hand laced with his on top of her stomach. Sex had just been part of the routine, a basic impulse with the added benefit of temporary pleasure. This...this was different in every way imaginable. It was probably the most insane thing she had ever done, letting herself become involved with him. She never knew when she'd be sent of to Tunisia to help rebel's in their civil war. She never knew when Manticore technology would rear its ugly head and make her flip out, like Ben had when he'd been faced with a relationship. Emotion was a weakness, hadn't Lydecker taught them that all of there lives? Love was the first thing that would be used against you, so it was as simple as she could never fall in love. So, now what was she supposed to do?  
  
She rolled out of bed slowly, careful not to wake Logan. No matter what was wrong with anyone's life, a shower never hurt. So she was going to take her own advice, gathering her clothes in one arm, stalking naked to the bathroom to try and sort out the mysteries of her life under a stream of scalding hot water.   
  
  
  
"Logan." He heard the voice distantly, but in the hazy confines of sleep prevented him from recognizing his own name. Max smiled to herself, wondering where that sudden well of tenderness came from, the one that had her fingers playing over his forehead and through his hair as she tried to rouse him momentarily from his slumber. She didn't want to just leave, but the sun was starting to rise, and she really needed to get home. She had to say goodbye, just so it didn't seem like a cheap one-night-stand. She was pretty sure Logan would be insulted by the comparison. "Logan, I have to go." Max whispered in his ear. Her smile dimmed when he muttered a goodbye under his breath. She wanted nothing more to lay there in bed with him and watch him wake up, then say goodbye properly. It was hell knowing she'd miss that. She brushed a kiss along his brow, the only goodbye she was going to get.   
  
She didn't even have time to yelp when the hand back yanked her off her feet and into Logan's arms. His lips were warm, Max melted against him without a protest.   
  
She smelled like soap. His soap. And Logan had no idea how erotic that simple fact could be. When she leaned back, her eyes shone brightly in the dim light. "I've got to go." She repeated softly, eyes still locked with his.   
  
"Okay." He said, fingers still buried in her damp hair. "I'll see you…" He trailed off as he glanced at the illuminated numbers of the bedside alarm clock. "…In a few hours." He finished.  
  
He looked thoroughly rumpled, his hair sticking up in messy spikes. And it was going to take every ounce of willpower to walk out of that door. She nodded, rising slowly and unsteadily. "Bye," She whispered.   
  
By the time she was in the elevator, Logan was already back asleep.   
  
  
  
  
She'd left the top down on her car, so by the time she got home her hair was dry and falling in waves around her face. Those waves were doing nothing but driving her insane as she carefully climbed up the side of the house. The light was bright, bouncing off the water, but she still had a chance of sneaking in without anyone noticing. Zack, Syl, and Krit were undoubtedly still asleep, so Jhondie and Zane were her only two worries. She was less than two steps from her bedroom window when she heard the voice behind her.  
  
"How nice of you to come home, Maxie." Syl was delighted to see Max's shoulder's hunch forward defensively. She'd stayed up all night to seek her revenge and it looked like it was about to pay off.   
  
Max turned to see Syl leaning out Zane's window, arms crossed on the windowsill, smiling idly. "How was your night, sister dear? Must have been action packed for you to have been out all night." Syl asked. Her whole plan to embarrass the hell out of Max and then lock her out of the house flew out the window when Max's eyes tear-ed up. "What? What's the matter?" She asked quickly.   
  
"He…I…nothing." Max cut her self off, brushing a finger under an eye to bat away a stray tear.   
  
Syl's thoughts were of death and destruction when as she quickly climbed out the window. "What'd he do to you, baby sister?" She was going to castrate Logan Cale if he made Max cry. She was going to castrate him, then tell Zane what happened, and let Zane beat the hell out of him, then have Lydecker ruin his life. Then she was going to blow up his car.   
  
"No, he didn't do anything." Max said, voice shaking. "He just didn't feel the same way about me that I did about him…it's not his fault." Max ran a hand through her hair. "I just drove around for a while…I had to clear my head."   
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Maxie." Syl comforted, giving Max a hug.   
  
"Is it okay if we just not talk about this now? I just want to go get a few minutes sleep before we have to go down to San Francisco." Max asked, sniffling one final time.   
  
"Oh, that's fine, go get some sleep." Sly comforted. "ZANE!" She shouted. "Go unlock Max's window!" They heard some muttering from his room, but finally, the window opened. Zane scowled at them both, and was about to join in on the harassing of Max, but the look on his sister and Syl's face stopped him. He silently helped Max in the window and let her climb into bed without a word.   
  
When Zane shut her door behind him, Max grinned, then buried her face in her pillow and giggled helplessly. She was good. She was freakin' good.   
  
  
  
Zane found Syl sitting on the corner of his bed when he re-entered his room. "What was up with that?" He asked quietly.   
  
"Cale is a dick and I would hire hit men to go after him. But this is why we put up with Krit. He's not going to be able to walk when we're done." She'd started to pace midway through her rant. "And you are going to help. I've got to get into his car for like fifteen minutes…" She trailed off, still pacing, but her plotting became mental.   
  
Zane smiled, but his eyes were still ice cold. If Cale hurt Max, then they'd take care of it. Syl would see to it.   
  
But little did they know that Max was still laying in her bed, laughing hysterically, knowing exactly how good of and actress she was.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 

Max stood at the kitchen counter, her foot tapping rhythmically along with a tune only she could hear. She'd unearthed a lone blueberry muffin that Zane had somehow overlooked. She was having the best time gloating, sitting across from him, peeling away the paper and taking one long, slow, savoring bite. 

Zane stared long and hard. "You are such a bitch." He finally said calmly. He became even more perplexed when Max just smiled. Then, in an act of kindness that had never once been witnessed in their house, Max broke off half of her muffin and offered it to him. Zane stared at it numbly. Max...offering him food... "I'm not taking that!" Zane exclaimed, shoving Max's had away like she was offering him rat poison. In his mind, the chances of that muffin containing rat poison were rather high, seeing as that would be the only was Max would be offering it to him. 

Max shrugged, dropping the half back onto her plate, and settled back to concentrating on the rare and blessed silence that was settled over the house. 

It was just past ten AM, the sky dark and dreary, as rain-bringing clouds had moved in during the last few hours. For those in their family that didn't need sleep, this late morning start was just a waste of time. Jhondie muttered about it in the shower, unlike Zack who was still stumbling around his room searching for the light switch. Her thoughts were of the upcoming interrogation of Phillip Costello's accountant in San Francisco. 

Back when they still lived in the barracks, when it was time for a mission, if they didn't jump out of their cots and stand at attention in half a second, there would be hell to pay. Now, poor Zane lost the bet, and would be the poor soul that would have to spend a half hour fighting Syl out of bed. And by fighting, that meant arming himself. Krit was awake, but printing off the list of information Max and Zane needed to memorize on the trip down the coast. 

Times had certainly changed. When the first groups of Manticore transgenics had been created, their sole purpose had been to be the ultimate soldiers. They were designed to kill. They had FBI for investigation, CIA for intelligence, NSA for national security, and DEA for drug enforcement. Manticore was like the clean up agency, used to eliminate a threat and still keep political face. 

When the current administration came into power, the first action after learning of Manticore, the Area 51 of the 21^st century, was to issue an ultimatum. If they didn't make there operations streamlined and as close to legitimate as possible when dealing with genetically engineered armies, then Manticore would cease to exist. So, training was changed, and Manticore became what appeared to be a government funded investigation agency. 

In a way, that's what they were. Only difference was a lot of times, the investigated went permanently missing instead of on trial or dead like with the CIA or FBI. They might be dead, but the Fivers and Sixers were a lot better at hiding the bodies than government brats. 

It gave the X5s far superior minds a chance to work a little harder, gathering evidence rather than confirmed kills. 

Phillip Costello was one of their pet projects. Just under seven moths into the investigation, they were closer than ever to proving the old bastard was responsible for over a dozen deaths. It was difficult to continue the investigation when the godson of the suspect was running around base, not to mention carrying on a relationship with one of the investigators. It helped that Costello never used the same alias twice. While Cale would be going along today to witness Max and Zane's strong interrogation skills, he would never put together `Uncle Phillip' with Robert Staub. 

Krit keyed in the security passwords and locked the computer up before grabbing the papers out of his printer and stepping out of his room. Zack stepped out of his room across the hall. They each paused for a moment, inclined their heads slightly in acknowledgment, and then moved on. Krit probably got along best with Zack out of all his brothers because they had a perfect understanding of each other. When they worked on missions together, the extent of their conversations mainly consisted of what toppings they wanted on their pizza. 

Krit followed Zack downstairs. After slapping the papers down in front of Zane, he moved in front of the coffee maker, and scowled as Zack poured the last into his own mug. Like any good X, he was caffeine junkie. Damn it, they were stopping on the way to get some coffee. They would stop if he had to take some people out. It didn't matter that they were his family; they were talking about coffee here. 

Zane glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'm going to go try and wake Syl up." He said mournfully. 

"Good luck." Zack said sympathetically. 

They sat in silence for moments after Zane left the room. A loud crash and some very audible cursing, Zane's yelp of pain, then the echo a slamming door was heard throughout the house. 

"So how was your night?" Zack asked quietly, sitting down at the table. Max looked up quickly, gauging what Zack really meant. When his face remained natural, she sighed in relief. 

"It was fine." She answered. She didn't try and feed him the stuff she'd fed Zane and Syl. It wouldn't be nearly as funny because Zack would drop everything to do a hunt. Syl and Zane would privately plot, and that she could take care of. Zack throwing a over-protective fit was something she wouldn't mind avoiding. 

"That's good." Zack said, blinking drowsily into his coffee. They glanced up, bemused, as Zane stormed back into the room, swearing under his breath. He pulled a tray of ice out of the freezer and tossed it onto the counter with a disgusted oath. 

"What's the matter?" Zack asked, barely holding back the grin. 

"She stabbed me..." Zane muttered. 

"If she was fast enough to stab you when she's not fully awake, you deserve it." Krit commented. 

Zane held up his hand where four, long scratches were lightly bleeding. "She stabbed me with a fork!" He said. "Why she was sleeping with a fork, I'll never know, but I shake her shoulder, next thing I know she's going for the face!" 

Krit and Zack politely tried to suppress their amusement. Max, on the other hand, was a different story. Zane paused in dumping ice onto the zip-lock to make a threatening face after Max's bark of laughter. "Don't say a word!" He snarled. 

"Sad thing is, she probably went to sleep with that fork in her hand knowing you'd be the one who would try to wake her up." 

Max was spared Zane's biting reply when the kitchen door swung open. Logan stepped through to door, brushing the light mist off the shoulders of his jacket. The only sound heard was the light smacking of ice together as Zane bundled up the dishtowel and slapped it onto his hand. 

"Logan." Zack finally acknowledged, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. Zane continued to glare, but Logan barely noticed as some one was usually was glaring at him, and it wasn't anything new. 

"Good morning." Syl announced brightly from the doorway. It was surprising that someone who not more than ten minutes earlier had violently attacked someone for disturbing her sleep could suddenly be bright and cheery. 

Zane knew the exact moment that Syl registered Logan's presence. The temperature in the room dropped about fifteen degrees. She crossed the room slowly, silently, before leaning on the counter next to Zane. "Kill time?" She asked under her breath. 

Zane frowned, studying as he spoke. "Take a look at that and tell me what you think." He whispered back. Syl turned her attention back to the table. Logan had taken a seat next to Max, sitting far enough away that it wasn't inappropriate. Far enough away that it wouldn't set up alarm bells. But the fact that neither of them had spoken since coming into the room, nor had they broken eye contact, said it all. When Logan subtly, or so he thought, reached under the table and took Max's hand, Syl had seen enough. At her disgusted snort, Zane offered the remainder of his coffee to Syl. He had already forgotten that he was supposed to be mad at her. "I could be wrong. In fact, I seriously doubt this could be true. Is it possible that our dear, sweet, innocent sister," Zane said with mock surprise, "Played us?" 

Syl smiled. "Hey Max?" She asked easily. Max blinked, surprised by the new voice, and turned in her seat to look at Syl. 

"Yeah?" 

"I'm dying to know." She said leaning forward and propping her face up with her hands. "Was he good?" She asked loudly, so that she was sure everyone else in the room was paying attention. 

"Was who good?" Max asked, a small smile playing across her face, as if she knew there was a joke, only she didn't get it. 

"Logan.? You two did have sex last night, right?" She said with a wicked smile and avid interest. 

Jhondie walked picked that moment to walk into the room. Max's mouth dropped open and her muffin fell from her limp fingers. Logan's face turned such a bright red; she thought she thought he was on the verge of an aneurysm. Zane was turning red to, but that was from trying not to laugh. Zack had slowly turned in his chair to stare at Max and Logan. Syl, her facial expression could only be described as a smirk. A very evil smirk. "What'd I miss?" Jhondie asked. When no one even acknowledged her entrance into the room, she asked again, this time her voice rising. She hated being the last to know. "Come on, what'd I miss?" 

"I think its time we head out." Zack said in an eerily calm voice, the only sign that anything had just happened being the fact that he still hadn't broken his glare at Logan. 

Syl, who was still smirking, crossed the room and picked up the remainder of Max's muffin where she had dropped it and took a big bite. "Thanks Maxie!" She said brightly, then grabbed her bag from next to the door, and continued out to the driveway. 

Without a word, Max scrambled up after her, and ran out the door. No one could tell if she was going after Syl or running for her life. 

"Syl!" She called, temper rising in her voice. "Syl!" She called again when her sister continued to walk. Max caught up with her a at the end of the sidewalk. "What the hell was that?" She shouted, stepping in front of her. 

"That?" Syl asked innocently. "Oh you mean...Well, see, I was so confused it just slipped out." 

"Confused?! Slipped out?!" Max raged. "Zack was...the whole room...Syl!!" Her vision had a lovely red haze and it was becoming hard to form a sentence. 

"Can you blame me? I mean, one minute you're telling me that he doesn't feel the same way about you, the next minute he walks in the room and the temperature spikes thirty degrees." Syl waited till the exact moment that realization started to spread across Max's face to side step around her and head towards her car. 

Max was still staring open-mouthed and stunned at Syl's back when the rest of her siblings began filtering out of the house. Zane handed her the small black back that contained all she'd need for the day, then waited till Max looked up to point and laugh. Literally. Even Krit laughed. Zack walked by without a word. That wasn't a good sign. 

Logan joined her on the sidewalk, politely keeping quiet till Max chose to speak. The rest of the X5s were milling about two cars getting ready to leave for the long drive. 

"I'm really sorry about that." Max finally said quietly. She sighed, and then began to walk slowly towards the car. "That was embarrassing." 

"To say the very least." Logan pushed his hands into his coat pockets. "Zack ever-so-nicely suggested I ride with him in his car." 

Max's head whipped around to look at his face. "What? Oh crap." She muttered. "Are you armed?" 

Logan started to laugh and realized she wasn't joking. "Agree with him." She said quickly. "Whatever he says, agree to it." 

"I take it you aren't riding with us." Logan said wearily. It was almost embarrassing that he was relying on his girlfriend to protect him, but then he realized that the girlfriends brother was made to kill people like him, so it wasn't all that bad. Was it? 

"No, I've got to ride with Zane and Syl so we can prep for the UIC." UIC stood for Unofficial Interrogation of a Civilian. The plan was for Max and Zane to pose as IRS agents and commandeer the records of anyone associating with Costello's crime ring. It might just be asking for permission to see the files, it might be knocking the guy out cold, tying him to his chair, and playing `snatch and run' with the guys filing cabinet. Max, Zane, and Jhondie were the best suited to deal with civilians, mainly because they were the most adjusted. The rest of them just tagged along for technical, communications, and good old-fashioned ass-kicking support. 

Max was still muttering under her breath as they approached the cars. Deciding they were both dead anyways, the risk wasn't really that bad. "Good luck." She said quickly, standing on the tips of her toes to give him a chaste kiss. "If it gets too bad, just jump out of the car or something." She suggested with a grin, then retreating to the backseat of Syl's car without another word. 

Logan stared off into space for another moment, then decided to take his life into his hands. He walked over to where Zack's non-descript black Suburban was parked. The car seemed to fit him so well. Krit, Zack, and Jhondie were loading the last of the surveillance gear into the backseats when Logan made his approach. No matter how well he thought he was handling this, Jhondie still noticed, with a snide smile, that he wouldn't look up from the ground that seemed to be oh-so-amusing to him. 

He was thirty-four, Logan thought with growing confidence. They were both consenting adults. Zack couldn't possibly be that pissed off about this. 

"All right, lets go." Zack said as Krit slammed the back doors. Jhondie moved to take the passenger seat when Zack stopped her. "No, let Cale take the front seat." He said with a pointed glare. Zack climbed in the drivers side and Krit and Jhondie took the back seat as Logan slowly walked towards the passenger side, as if every step was his last. 

It very well could be, he thought, climbing in and pulling his seatbelt on. 


	20. Chapter 20

Anyone who wants email updates for when I update, please email me at princessjaci@hotmail.com  
  
Special thanks to Cat Carroll for all her help with the dialogue. Show how much we appreciate her help and go read J&J and/or Gen X-6 and/or Terran. WE LOVE CAT!!  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Zane really wasn't paying attention to the road. The joys of parallel processing really didn't make it necessary. His thoughts were more or less circling around the hilarious mental image of Zack performing some sort of pagan dance around a bon fire with Logan's head on a stick. That's why when Max shot up in her seat and screamed for him to swerve to the left, instinctive reaction took over and he complied. The audible crunch and thump had Zane wincing. "Did I just kill a squirrel for you?" He asked with some trepidation.  
  
Max was turned in her seat, looking out the back window just to make sure the creature was one hundred percent dead. "Yes." She said triumphantly. When she saw Zack's car move to avoid the smashed mass of evil that remained in the center of the road, she turned back in her seat to face Zane. "Thanks!"  
  
"I hate when you take away my right to choose whether or not to participate in your genocide." Zane said with a sigh as he turned back to the road.  
  
"I thought we're supposed to rid the world of evil." Max said as she flipped open the thick file on her lap.  
  
Zane glanced in the rearview mirror at Zack's car. Zack's speed was slowly increasing. He did that when he was mad. "Speaking of ridding the world of things, I think we've discovered a way to rid the world of Logan Cale."  
  
Max turned her head to glare at Syl, who was stretched across the back seat asleep. "That's *so* not funny." She muttered, trying to ignore Zane.  
  
"You know what's not funny?" Zane asked. "The acting skills you demonstrated this morning. Tell me, sister dear, were they used all night long or just after you got home?"  
  
"Aww." Max said reaching across to pat Zane's cheek affectionately. "I'm sorry!"  
  
"For what?"  
  
"I forgot you haven't been with a woman who hasn't had to use them." Max's smile widened when Zane didn't respond. His mouth did open and close a couple of times as if he was trying to say something, but the words wouldn't form. Finally his jaw snapped shut and his brainstorm became mental. Speechlessness was an effect she seemed to have on males lately.  
  
"Nice one, Max." Syl murmured from the back seat as she rolled over onto her side.  
  
"I thought you were on my side on this?" Zane asked, studying Syl's back in the rearview mirror.  
  
"Whoever has the most self-esteem destroying comments. That's the side I'm on."  
  
"You have *no* loyalty, Syl. None." Zane shot back with a smile. He wasn't surprised that she was already asleep.  
  
"Okay, getting back to the matter at hand." Max said taping her fingers against the file. "Have you even looked at this yet?"  
  
"Nope." Zane replied merrily. "You?"  
  
"Nope. Didn't even dig it out from my pile of things on my desk till this morning."  
  
"That's okay. We're genetically engineered bullshitters." Zane mentally checked the directions he had memorized, gauging how long he could go without pulling over to a convenience store to load up on sugar.  
  
Max smiled but continued to study the file in front of her. It'd been a long time since she posed as an IRS agent. She needed to practice getting her Satan's Little Helper facial expression down. "Once, Lydecker got pissed at me and sent me to make calls for accounting one day. Bastard figured running laps was too easy for me. Have you ever tried to ask the IRS a simple fucking question? I mean, I just want to know if blowing up a car can be considered a business expense, and they read me fifteen different statutes, none make sense. My IQ is off the scale, and I still don't know what the fuck they are saying."  
  
"It's a good thing Manticore has complete control over our assets. They can foreclose on our house, they can repossess our cars, and they can freeze our accounts. We don't have to fill out tax forms. Our lack of a childhood somehow seems worth it."  
  
"Why do we have to be nice to the guy? Why can't we just tap the air supply, knock him out for a while, and get what we need?" Max complained, laying her head against the cool pane of glass to the right of her head.  
  
"Nice? Max, we're posing as IRS agents. This guy isn't going to come out of this without at least six weeks of being institutionalized. IRS stands for 'I.R. Screwed.'"  
  
Max laughed. "They don't even give you a kiss first, much less feed you."  
  
"So that's how Cale scored? He whips out the French named foods and he gets a piece."  
  
Max ignored the offensiveness of his words. It was the tone that counted. No matter what a smart assed son of a bitch Zane tried to be, he really did care what happened to her. "It's not like that." She said after long consideration. It was hard to explain to her brother something she hadn't even begun to understand herself.  
  
"How serious are you about him?" Zane asked without preamble. All humor had left his voice when he saw the faintly ill expression cross Max's face. Max didn't say a word, only stared out the window watching the scenery blur by her unfocused eyes. "I guess it's to late not to warn you to get in to deep."  
  
The corner of Max's lips quirked. "Probably."  
  
Zane swore lightly. He'd heard Jhondie and Syl debating how serious Max was about Logan, but he'd never really believed it was as bad as they thought it was. They were his sisters, female, and had a tendency to over- exaggerate things. But here Max was, all.dare he say it.love sick. He could give advice one what weapon was most effective in what combat situations. What the hell was he supposed to do when his sister went and fell in love with a journalist that was on the verge of exposing their existence to the world? Love didn't just make life complicated to those directly involved. "Well, are you happy at least?" He asked with a vague hand gesture.  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Are you genuinely happy?" Zane repeated. "Or are you just drawn to the fact that he's the first person outside our family that knows the whole truth about you?"  
  
For one, long, horrifying moment Max thought Zane might have been right. But all she had to do was remember the flutter in her stomach that she felt whenever their eyes locked to know it was more than that. She couldn't forget the tingling just under her skin when his fingers hovered over it. She wasn't making that up. Never, before Logan, could she have even imagined feeling that way about someone. It was beyond anything anyone imagined them capable of feeling.  
  
The silence had just started to worry Zane when Max spoke. "I promise I'm happy." She said.  
  
Both of them suddenly felt very uncomfortable and out of place. Max wasn't used to having to talk about her feelings and Zane wasn't used to trying to understand what was going on in his sister's mind. 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21  
  
"Steven Andrews and Julianne Reinholt to see Mr. Baugher." Zane said politely to the receptionist that manned the front desk.  
  
"Please sign in." The middle-aged woman decreed monotonously before picking up the phone.  
  
Max scrawled her assumed identity in the visitors log, listening carefully to the tone of the woman voice as she talked to her boss. She knew instantly that they weren't going to be allowed to see Baugher without some persuasion.  
  
"I'm sorry. Mr. Baugher is very busy today and is taking appointments only." The receptionist said, replacing the phone in its cradle.  
  
Zane cocked his head slightly, letting the tiniest of smirks touch his lips. Max managed to keep her face emotionally detached, but she reached into her jacket just the same.  
  
"Agent Andrews and Reinholt with the IRS." He said with the arrogance of an authentic government worker.  
  
To the Baugher, Forrester, & Kline accounting firm, a little visit from their friendly IRS agents wasn't good news.  
  
The receptionist, now quite pale, asked to see their identifications. Max and Zane handed her the perfectly forged IDs. She took the phone again, dialing the numbers on the back of "Agent Andrew's" ID. "Hello," She said somewhat uneasily. "This is Barbara Myers with Baugher, Forrester, & Kline. Two agents are here and I'd like to verify who they are."  
  
  
  
"Okay. Can I have their badge numbers please?" Jhondie said into the phone, simultaneously checking the surveillance equipment on the table in front of her.  
  
"Mmhmm. Agent Steven Andrews and Agent Julianne Reinholt, that is correct. Yes, they're there for a visit with Dwayne Baugher." Jhondie finished her equipment checks long enough to shoot Zack a thumbs up. "Have a nice afternoon." She finished politely and ended the call.  
  
They each turned and watched the screen that displayed the security feed Syl tapped into. "Mr. Baugher will see you now." The receptionist said with a somewhat shaky voice. "Have a nice day." Everyone let out a sigh of relief when Zane and Max received their visitor badges and exited the view of the front office security camera.  
  
With a few keystrokes, the image on the screen changed to a long, door- lined hallway that Zane and Max were walking down soundlessly.  
  
Logan sat several feet behind the X5s, somewhat isolated from it all. Objectively, he scrawled notes into the pad of paper that Lydecker allowed him. He found it ten times easier to either record his interviews or type them directly into his laptop, since his handwriting was close to illegible. But apparently a laptop and a simple hand held recorder was too much of a security risk, according to Lydecker. Since Logan figured he was a week away from having enough information to write his article, he wasn't about to risk everything he'd done for a tape recorder. No matter how badly his hand was cramping.  
  
'It's still surprising how they can transition from family mode to military mode without much effort. Their commanding officer can order his siblings to set up equipment in the same breath that he tell me what can be done to the human body with jumper cables. More specifically the human body that was involved with his sister.'  
  
Once again, Logan found his thoughts trailing of the details that were less than important to this particular article. He could write a novel on everything that was going through his head concerning Max, but he was supposed to be writing a three page political magazine appropriate article. Not on what it was like to wake up, thinking it was all a dream, then finding the remnants of their hastily made dinner still in the sink.  
  
"Okay, they're in." Zack said. "Cut video record, switch to audio." He ordered.  
  
"Why aren't you recording the surveillance tapes?" Logan asked Syl as she switched off the console that had been recording the visuals.  
  
"A lot of the things that are going to happen in that office we don't want on tape. So we took out cameras altogether. By the time security knows there is a problem, we should be out of here."  
  
Logan nodded, waiting for any sort of sound to come through the speaker. The silence was enough to make anyone go out of their minds, but the X5s just sat calmly completing tasks. Jhondie examined her nails, Zane fidgeted with a paper clip. Most alarming of all was Syl leaning back in her chair with her eyes closed, like she was about to go to sleep.  
  
Logan jumped when the sound of a fist against wood came out of the speaker.  
  
"Mr. Baugher." Max's voice sounded detached and emotionless. "I'm Agent Reinholt with the IRS. This is Agent Andrews."  
  
"Nice to meet you." There was a pause. "What brings you agents out here on a hot day like today?" Baugher's held the southern Texas twang that twenty years on the northern west coast couldn't erase.  
  
There was another stretch of silence, presumably Zane and Max entering the office. "We'd like to talk to you about one of your clients. Robert Staub." Zane said. "We have received a tip that has shed some suspicion over the tax report that Mr. Staub filed, through this agency, in 2019. There appears to be a small discrepancy."  
  
"What kind of discrepancy?" Baugher asked.  
  
  
  
Max tapped her finger against her knee to resist smirking. "I'm afraid that information is sensitive to the case and can not be disclosed at this time." She said and had the sublime pleasure of seeing Baugher's shoulders tense. Sensitive information was never good information.  
  
"I'm afraid I can't give you anything unless I see a warrant." Baugher said, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "Client privilege, I'm sure you understand." Max glanced out of the corner of her eye at Zane, who wore the exact same expression. He was talking to them like third graders. They represented the people who made those laws. Or at least, they were pretending to be.  
  
Zane slipped the folded piece of paper out of his pocket and slapped it into the middle of Baugher's desk without a word. Baugher's face went an interesting shade of gray, reminding Zane and Max that there were certain perks to recon. "This is a search warrant pertaining to a charges against Phillip Costello." He managed; sweat popping out along his hairline.  
  
"Yes, it is." Zane said. He couldn't help it anymore. His face broke into a triumphant grin. "Robert Staub is one of Phillip Costello's aliases."  
  
Baugher's mouth dropped open. Then he seemed to gather his wits and his face went blank. "There is no way an IRS agent would know that, you're just making wild accusations that have no basis."  
  
"Oh come on!" Max said with a small, thin laugh. "Have you ever seen IRS agents that look this good?" As if to make her point clear, she pulled the forged ID out of her pocket and tossed it onto the desk to lie next to the warrant. "Now we can sit here and work this out rationally. Or you could continue to piss me off by playing dumb. Then you'll find out who we really are." She casually propped her feet up on the surface of Baugher's desk.  
  
Neither of them had anticipated the gun.  
  
  
  
The pencil had dropped out of Logan's fingers the second he heard his godfather's name mentioned. To say it was unexpected was like saying Oswald gave Kennedy a good weeks notice that he was going to assassinate him. After the full ten seconds of a complete lack of brain function, his logic kicked into overdrive. He couldn't have heard that right.  
  
If he was hearing this right, they had a warrant out on his godfather. Which made absolutely no sense, because his godfather was a good man. He had his faults, yes, but he was completely harmless. Completely harmless. Phillip Costello was a simple man with a mind only for business. He didn't have the imagination to pull off anything else. He'd looked through most of the X5s files and had read all about this mistakes they had made, but this was truly as far off base as they'd ever been.  
  
The gunshot was an assault to their ears, making everyone jump. There wasn't even a second of frozen shock in the room. "Pull the camera up." Zack commanded unnecessarily. Syl had it done before anyone could blink. The image jumped onto screen. The sounds didn't match up with the images, leaving them in the dark with what was really going on. "What's the delay on this?" Zack asked as he watched Zane jump the desk. "Exactly thirteen seconds." Syl muttered. "More than enough time for something to go wrong, send someone in." She ordered. While listening to the sound of bone crunching against flesh, they watched Baugher raise a gun and fire. Max rolled, hitting the floor, but there was no way to tell if she'd been hit or not. There was a loud screech of static, a crunch, and then total silence inside the room. The screen went blank. "Send someone in, Zack!" Syl repeated. They were operating totally blind, totally deaf.  
  
"No. We can't risk it. By the time they get through security this will be over." Zack murmured.  
  
"Security isn't a problem." Jhondie said, crossing the room to stand next to do the door.  
  
"We can't risk the exposure." Zack repeated.  
  
"Fuck that." Zack turned to face Logan. "Someone just pulled a gun in there, you don't know who, you don't know what the hell just happened in there, and you're talking about exposure?" Logan said incredulously.  
  
"They can take care of themselves." Zack said stiffly, fury sparking in his eyes. "I don't need to defend my decisions to you."  
  
Krit had left his keyboard forgotten to stand at the door with Jhondie, just waiting for signal from Zack. "I'll just say that if I don't hear from them in three minutes," Krit said under his breath, "Zack's orders aren't going to mean shit to me."  
  
Jhondie said nothing, only nodded, and listened to the tense silence that would be their accompaniment for the next three minutes.  
  
  
  
"Son of a bitch!" Zane looked at Baugher's unconscious body one last time. "You okay, Max?"  
  
"Yeah." She kicked off the heeled boots she'd been wearing bad temperedly as she got up off the floor. "But I'm never going to look the same in a sleeveless shirt again." She clamped a hand over upper arm.  
  
Zane swore loudly. "How bad?" He asked.  
  
"Just a flesh wound. Just brushed me." Max reassured. "Call Zack before he sends in the cavalry. My ear piece got knocked out." Zane pulled his cell phone out and dialed while Max crossed over to the row of filing cabinets situated behind Baugher's desk. She paused long enough to give Baugher's unconscious body a firm kick the stomach. "That's for ruining my favorite jacket." She muttered.  
  
They worked in quick and quiet silence. Ignoring the blood on her fingers, Max systematically went through the three tall filing cabinets, pulling files out at random that could be important to any of their investigations. Now that Baugher had taken a shot at them, he wasn't exactly going to be able to call the police on them. Therefore, they didn't need to stick to their warrant. "Aren't the Sixers looking up on Senator Martin?"  
  
"I think so." Zane made quick work of the weak security system on Baugher's computer.  
  
Max nodded and pulled his file out. "Okay, let's get the hell out of here. My arm hurts like a bitch."  
  
"Quit whining, Max." Zane said and grabbed the pile of papers out of the printer. He pulled a small, slim piece of what appeared to be tin foil out of his breast pocket. He peeled the back off, and then stuck it to the underside of his monitor. It wasn't very hidden, but unless he purposely checked for a bug under the monitor, then it would go unnoticed until someone decided to search his office for bugs. It was a simple transmitter, one that took Krit an entire summer to design and would only work with his system. Krit was going to have to spend hours sorting through every page that anyone visited on that computer, but the chance to see into his email was enough to make it worth it. "Okay, lets go." He said. Baugher was starting to moan, not that they were particularly worried or anything, but it was best that they got out of there before he started screaming for the cops.  
  
They calmly walked into the hallway, keeping their expressions impassive as they received stares as they exited the building. Seeing a man and a woman, one covered in blood and the other carrying a large stack of files. "Just a quick warning." Zane said conversationally as they brushed past the shocked receptionist that was quickly calling the police. "Zack said they let Logan listen into the transmission."  
  
"Shit." Max muttered. "How much did he hear?"  
  
"He's a pretty bright guy."  
  
"Damn it. How screwed over am I?"  
  
"I'd say you're screwed blind."  
  
Max sighed long and hard. "Well, hell, I just got shot. If that doesn't buy me some time, shoot me again, would you please?"  
  
"With pleasure." Zane said with a grin. 


End file.
